Bradley Garrett grew up in Southern California as a skateboarder fascinated by urban decay, ricocheting through the remnants of what used to be a thriving urban area. This led him to a master’s degree in archaeology, and when he decided to pursue a PhD., he dedicated himself to a new kind of modern archaeology he calls “placehacking”—exploring and interacting with urban environments that have been abandoned or fallen into disrepair. Sometimes this means a photo session, sometimes it means fleeing from security guards and trespassing charges. (Most notoriously, he was connected with British placehackers who found a secret alternate subway system under London, but were then captured and threatened with criminal charges by transit police.) His photography and writing reveal the vast contrast between today’s rich and today’s poor, like the hundreds of people living secretly and illegally in Las Vegas storm drains, literally beneath the hotels and casinos on the strip. But they also demonstrate the resilience and resourcefulness of people forced to develop new ways of living in the ruins of a collapsing society. At its heart, his placehacking work forces you to look at the world in a new way—and to realize you have no idea what might actually be happening around you.
