Photographer Ffej Onirac has spent years venturing into the unseen layers of the modern metropolis, exploring steam tunnels, forgotten subway stations, underground utility corridors, and long-sealed prohibition-era speakeasies. But nothing in his past excursions prepared him for what he encountered on one fateful night in 2020 beneath San Francisco.

Entering a derelict steam tunnel near the Embarcadero under cover of darkness, Onirac expected the usual labyrinth of pipes and forgotten passageways. Instead, he emerged—in broad daylight—onto a cityscape that was both intimately familiar and utterly wrong. Buildings stood where none should be. Street names were nearly the same but strangely altered. And while the skyline was recognizable, its details were askew, as if the city had been rewritten by an unseen hand. Parallel Universe presents the astonishing photographic record of Orinac’s 24-hour journey through this eerily alternate San Francisco, where reality blurred and the familiar turned foreign.