Generation Urbex

"We live in the past. We don't do what we do because we're vandals or criminals. We're not going into these buildings to smash mirrors or throw sinks off the roof. We're here to capture the past and to share it with those who may never get the chance to see what we see or to feel what we feel. That's what it's all about." -Felonious Monk

The desire to explore the forbidden is innate in the human spirit. For centuries that desire has led to the development of entire continents, the uncovering of lost civilizations, and the discovery of countless medical anomolies. It has also served to satisfy the curiosity of historians and researchers who desire to learn from the past through exploration. And as well it has served to satisfy the curiosity of artists and photographers who belong to a rather large collective that call themselves Urban Explorers.

Urban Exploration (also known as Urbex) has existed for centuries, and one of the earliest explorers of record was a Frenchman, who in 1793 was lost while exploring the catacombs of Paris. It took 11 years to find his body in the maze of underground tunnels. The most well known name in exploration however is author Walt Whitman who documented his exploration of the New York City Atlantic Avenue subway tunnel before it was finally sealed in 1861. Fast forward to the past twenty years where the age of the internet has spawned sites such as Infiltration, Urban Exploration Resource, and Opacity which have aided in increasing the mainstream visibility of what was once a little known hobby. Media attention has focused on Urban Exploration while profiling haunted buildings and filming stunts where groups of people are left alone for a night in an abandoned hospital. Then finally the inevitable negative press such as that related to an 8 alarm fire at the oldest abandoned mill in Holyoke, Massachusetts.

After a recent and major incident of vandalism at Greystone Psychiatric in New Jersey, Urban Exploration has taken center stage for many law enforcement agencies who are seeking to apprehend individuals who are causing massive amounts of damage to psychiatric centers across the United States. Authorities have long been aware of Urban Explorers but no other incident has garnered more attention than the defilement of a construction model that was housed in the active portion of the partially abandoned New Jersey facility. For many who consider themselves to be seasoned explorers, this has prompted them to move away from exploration in order to separate themselves from these criminals, while hoping against hope that their hobby eventually sees a kind of rebirth that will allow them to once again safely resume chronicalling our nation's past.

It seems that the new focus on Urban Exploration has begun to attract a certain type of individual to these forums and to the hobby in general that has led indirectly to many incidents of fire, theft, and vandalism. Contrary to popular belief, most urban explorers are educated adults who visit these buildings with the intention of experiencing history while taking photographs and getting the opportunity to see a landmark that will eventually be destroyed either by natural decay or by development. In the past few years, urban sprawl and the housing boom have made it very difficult for states to protect their historic buildings and many explorers are, in the end, the last people to document these buildings before they meet their imminent demise. Those serious artists and historians are unfortunately being overshadowed by the many teenagers and young adults joining the hobby in search of an adrenaline rush that quickly turns ugly.

Urban Exploration has long held its own set of ethics that presumably each explorer would adhere to in one way or another. The first and most important is the theory that you do not break into and explore an active building. Active is any site that is in use, whether it be a business, a home, or a hospital. Many abandoned buildings are indeed found on partially active complexes, and the assumption in that case is that one would explore the abandoned building without causing any damage to the active portion or endangering any individual who resides on the premises. The second is a type of "do no harm" rule. Explorers generally rely on vandals to do the breaking in order to allow for easy entry, but of course this is not always the case. Frequently an explorer will need to make a way into a building, but rarely will a true explorer destroy a portion of a building in order to gain access.

Unfortunately, it seems that the new breed of explorers that has surfaced is one that is in pursuit of the greatest number of explores in increasingly dangerous, high profile sites such as federal properties and fully active complexes. The online communities have become glorified high schools where each individual feels it is acceptable to personally attack other explorers to point the point of harassment. This spirit of one upmanship has also begun to strip away the anonymity that the hobby has long enjoyed. Members of law enforcement are patrolling websites regularly, watching the publicly posted activities planned by forum members. Buildings that were once little known to the general public are appearing on YouTube and numerous photo hosting websites, occasionally with blow by blow accounts on how access was gained. Explorers are becoming vandals who throw bathroom fixtures off of roofs and set off fireworks in underground tunnels. Videos of explorers taunting security guards at high profile sites are surfacing and fires are cropping up on campuses everywhere.

So where should each individual explorer draw the line? How can the actions of many be undone by so few? Unfortunately for most, the answer is to stop exploring- at least for the time being. Those who are willing to comment on the situation say they are hoping that this is just a cycle through which the hobby must continue to move. Some have even said they believe the entire concept of Urban Exploration is set to implode. "The social aspect of the hobby will eventually turn on itself," says Jim, an explorer for the past four years. "As our economy continues to worsen, more and more buildings will become abandoned and after the social network of exploring disintegrates, hopefully we'll see a renaissance and those of us who are serious about exploring for the right reasons will be able to return to it."