Going underground: The outlaws of New York's thriving subculture as seen by one photographer who spent years in city's underbelly

After graffiti artist Banksy argued last week that New York has lost its edge, a new book by photographer Tod Seelie is a poke in the eye to all those critics who claim the city has become too corporate and mainstream.
Bright Nights: Photographs Of Another New York compiles a decade and a half of Seelie’s adventures exploring the city’s rich underbelly of alternative and underground culture.
The New York documented by Steelie is one where people regularly climb bridges, party in railroad tunnels, and sail homemade rafts on the Hudson River.

A ruckus band perform at a squat in Alphabet City, Manhattan in 2012: A new book by photographer Tod Seelie is a poke in the eye to all those critics who claim New York City has become too corporate and mainstream

People on-board a makeshift raft sail round the southern tip of Manhattan, 2008: Bright Nights: Photographs Of Another New York compiles a decade and a half of Tod Seelie's adventures exploring the city's rich underbelly of alternative and underground culture

View of Manhattan from the top of the Williamsburg Bridge, 2011: The New York that Steelie documents is one where people climb bridges, party in railroad tunnels, and sail homemade rafts on the Hudson River

Steelie fell in love with the city and all its wild possibilities after moving from Rocky River, Ohio. Although the city he documents is a far cry from the picture postcard version on sale to tourists in Times Square. 
His New York is an underground haven for people at society’s edges, who come alive at night to party in abandoned spaces, to make music and art and noise and mess.
‘I hope what happens is when you take in all these images and the subject matter and the aesthetic and you pile them together, you get a sense of this world that's kind of swirling right underneath a lot of people’s feet in New York,’ Seelie told Slate.com.
He moved to the city to attend the Pratt Institute in 1997 and became immersed in Brooklyn’s burgeoning art and music scene.

Setting up for a secret dinner in the Freedom Tunnel, Manhattan, 2007: Steelie's New York is an underground haven for people at society's edges, who come alive at night to party in abandoned spaces

Burning car in Bushwick, Brooklyn, 2007: The city documented in Steelie's book is a far cry from the picture postcard version on sale to tourists in Times Square

Crowd dancing on a rooftop during a Fourth of July party, Bushwick, Brooklyn, 2006: The city that never sleeps is still there although if you want to find it perhaps you need to look a bit harder and travel a bit further

Although many of the DIY venues he once frequented have now closed due to rising rents, Seelie believes it remains possible to enjoy an alternative lifestyle in New York - even if you need a regular pay-cheek to help fund it.
‘Some people may think that to do some of the stuff you see in the photos you have to have no job, never work. In fact, the opposite is true.
'A lot of the people in the photos have day jobs, and this is what they do at night. It's really about what you're passionate about, what you do, what you like to make happen on your own,’ he said.
A lot of Seelie's photographs involve a high degree of risk as safety is often questionable and the police are never too far away, but for Steelie it is simply a matter of weighing risk and reward.

Callie crowd surfing during a Spank Rock show at Bodega, Bushwick, Brooklyn, 2009: Many DIY venues have closed due to rising rents, but Seelie believes it remains possible to enjoy an alternative lifestyle even if you need a pay-cheek to help fund it

Vogue dance battle at La Escuelita, Manhattan, 2012: An alternative lifestyle is still achievable says Seelie, even if most people have to work to supplement it

‘I try really hard not to get caught. It's just one aspect of life where you have to evaluate it for yourself. Maybe something's too dangerous, something's too risky, or something's just too stupid - but maybe it's totally worth it,’ he said.
Many people will view Seelie’s adventures as things they simply wouldn’t dream of doing – or perhaps are too scared to try – but it is somehow reassuring to know that somewhere out there in the night there are people crowd surfing in high heels or playing in a mutant brass band.
Seelie's photographs prove that the city that never sleeps is still there, it's just that if you want to find it you might need to look a bit harder and travel a bit further to the outer boroughs than some of those people so quick to say that New York isn’t as good as it once was.
Bright Nights: Photographs Of Another New York by Tod Seelie is available to buy now.

Seelie's book documents the photographs he has taken over the past 15 years of a very different New York to the one seen by most of its residents and visitors