Tunnel People

(Paperback)

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By the end of the millennium, thousands of homeless people roamed the streets of Manhattan. A small group of them went underground. Invisible to society, they managed to start a new life in the tunnel systems of the city. Acclaimed war photographer Voeten gained unprecedented access to this netherworld, where he lived for five months, meeting Vietnam veterans, macro-biotic hippies, crack addicts, cuban refugees and runaways. 13 years later, Voeten tracks down the original tunnel dwellers - now evicted - to discover what happened since they left the tunnels.

Reviews

"Teun Voeten has found yet another frontier in the great American experiment--the one underground, in the tunnels of Manhattan--and delivered it to us in an utterly charming and fascinating account. Part anthropologist and part journalist, Voeten dwells in a unknown world that most of us simply pass by in a hurry. To fully know America, one most follow Voeten into her depths. There is much there to admire and, yes, to learn from."
--Sebastian Junger, War Reporter and author of The Perfect Storm.

"This book is so brilliant because it's written from the perspective of an insider, from someone who actually lived in the tunnel they are writing about, someone who actually spent time in the darkness, scavenged for food out of the garbage and literally slipped between the cracks in the pavement and into a place of true invisibility. Veoten is not someone who just poked his head in and squeaked, "hello" into the darkness."
--Marc Singer, maker of the award winning documentary Dark Days.

"Finally, after countless portrayals of one of the most highly publicized existences, Voeten is to be commended for his honest and explicit view of New York's underworld. I salute his efforts and sacrifices to the highest. "
--Bernard Monte Isaac aka Lord of the Tunnel, former tunnel resident.

"Voeten is no doubt one of the most adventurous reporters in the Netherlands."
--Vrij Nederland Magazine

"Voeten resists the temptation to sensationalize and romanticize the underground tunnel people. Nor is his book sentimental...[it is a ] sober and well-written report about the mean misery underground: That makes this book so powerful."
--Volkskrant

"Tunnel People is a supreme example of participatory observation. The insider's point of view comes here to full light in a brilliant way. It is not an objective case-study, but a subjective, journalistic reportage, right to the point of an incredible dynamic, human underworld that is nowhere being sensationalized nor romanticized by Voeten..."
--Passage

Author Bio

Teun Voeten is an award-winning photojournalist whose work has been published in National Geographic, Newsweek, the New Yorker, and Vanity Fair. He is the author of How De Body One Man's Terrifying Journey Through an African War and A Ticket To and a contributing photographer for many organizations, including Doctors without Borders, Human Rights Watch, the International Red Cross, and the United Nations.