Photo gallery: Chernobyl and 25 years of technogenic catastrophe

Aerial view of the damaged core at Chernobyl. Roof of the turbine hall is damaged (image center). Roof of the adjacent reactor 3 (image lower left) shows minor fire damage. inibelogieqwa.blogspot.com

3 May 2011 (Desdemona Despair) – It’s hard for Desdemona to believe, but it’s been 25 years since the “worst technogenic accident in history.” Des heard the news at the front desk of the MacGregor House dorm, and has had a morbid fascination with the event ever since. The 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl explosion has inspired a number of photographers to travel to the doomed town of Pripyat to document the region as it exists today. Here’s a meta-gallery of photo galleries, new and old. To start off, here are a few photos from 1986 to remind everybody of the disaster’s scale.

Close-up view of the reactor #4 area shortly after the explosion at Chernobyl. This would have been a dangerous place to be. gallery.spaceman.ca / International Nuclear Safety Program — Close-up view of the reactor 4 area shortly after the explosion at Chernobyl. This would have been a dangerous place to be. gallery.spaceman.ca / International Nuclear Safety Program

Pripyat, the 2nd day after the catastrophe. Pedestrians, a cyclist and automobiles can be seen on the photograph. The picture is made from helicopter at April, 27th, 1986 (the 2nd day after the accident). In 100 meters from cars (from the right on the way, where cars turn) there was a way of radioactive fallout (over the 'bridge of death'). The radiation level is 500 roentgens per hour. pripyat.com — Pripyat, the 2nd day after the catastrophe. Pedestrians, a cyclist and automobiles can be seen on the photograph. The picture is made from helicopter at April, 27th, 1986 (the 2nd day after the accident). In 100 meters from cars (from the right on the way, where cars turn) there was a way of radioactive fallout (over the ‘bridge of death’). The radiation level is 500 roentgens per hour. pripyat.com

Liquidators line up at the stricken Chernobyl nuclear plant, 1986. progettohumus.it

On April 28, 2009, the Advanced Land Imager (ALI) on NASA's Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite took this true-color picture of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor. NASA image created by Jesse Allen, using EO-1 ALI data provided courtesy of the NASA EO-1 Team. Photo: Jesse Allen / NASA EO-1 Team — On April 28, 2009, the Advanced Land Imager (ALI) on NASA’s Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite took this true-color picture of the nuclear reactor. The large body of water in the right half of the image is the northwestern end of a 12-kilometer- (7.5-mile-) long cooling pond, and water channels run through the network of reactor-related buildings west of the pond. Reactor number four appears on the west end of a long building northeast of an L-shaped water channel. NASA image created by Jesse Allen, using EO-1 ALI data provided courtesy of the NASA EO-1 Team. Photo: Jesse Allen / NASA EO-1 Team

The park is the most radioactive section of Pripyat because it is directly in front of the Chernobyl atomic plant. Every step toward the little cars adds 100 microroentgen to the geiger counter reading. Elena Filatova / elenafilatova.com — The park is the most radioactive section of town because it is directly in front of the atomic plant. It is said that people ran for their lives as they searched for their children in the atomic smoke. … I don’t know if it is true, but I know that on April 27, on the day of evacuation, the average radiation level in town was about 1 roentgen! Ghost Town is a modern Pompeii. The Soviet era is preserved here – in the radiation for all this years. Every step toward the little cars adds 100 microroentgen to my Geiger counter reading. [Elena Filatova was the first freelance photographer on the scene in 2003.] Photo: Elena Filatova / www.elenafilatova.com

DANGER AHEAD: A warning sign at a checkpoint at the 30-kilometer exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant near Pripyat, Ukraine, 2011. Charles Q. Choi / scientificamerican.com — DANGER AHEAD: A warning sign at a checkpoint at the 30-kilometer exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant near Pripyat, Ukraine, 2011. Photo: Charles Q. Choi / scientificamerican.com

The First 28 Dead, Chernobyl Museum, Kiev, Jan Smith 2011 — The First 28 Dead, Chernobyl Museum, Kiev, Photo: Jan Smith

Chernobyl Memorial, Mitino Cemetery Moscow, 2011. 'When I arrived at Mitino Cemetery in Moscow, where they are buried, it was already two in the afternoon and getting dark. All 28 graves were covered in ice and snow. I cracked open the ice cocoons and discovered old flowers under the snow. Each headstone revealed a face carved in metal that stared back at me from the cold.' Photo: Jan Smith / smithjan.com — “I visited the graves of the first 28 victims of Chernobyl, the firemen and technicians who fought to control the fires and shut-down the reactor. When I arrived at Mitino Cemetery in Moscow, where they are buried, it was already two in the afternoon and getting dark. All 28 graves were covered in ice and snow. I cracked open the ice cocoons and discovered old flowers under the snow. Each headstone revealed a face carved in metal that stared back at me from the cold.” Jan Smith, 2011. Photo: Jan Smith

Discarded gas masks in Pripyat, 2011, 25 years after the Chernobyl explosion. David Schindler — Discarded gas masks in Pripyat. Photo: David Schindler

“Gas masks are ubiquitous rubble in many buildings; on the floor, in corners, on old furniture. I must clarify something here: Gas masks were not used during the nuclear accident! Masks have limited effect in protecting against radiation. Instead, they belonged to stockpiles for civilian use in case of a chemical or biological attack. Later, looters entered Pripyat and removed the silver inside the masks’ filters to then sell on the black-market. Using the masks as props to underline the tragedy is misleading and uses drama at the expense of truth.” Photo: Jan Smith

THE CONTROL ROOM: Instruments in the former control room for destroyed reactor no. 4 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, 2011. Charles Q. Choi / scientificamerican.com — THE CONTROL ROOM: Instruments in the former control room for destroyed reactor no. 4 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Photo: Charles Q. Choi / scientificamerican.com

Unit 4 Control Room ( 6-9 June 2001). Declared unfit for human habitation, the "Zones of Exclusion" includes the towns of Pripyat (established in the 1970s to house workers) — and Chernobyl. In May 2001, Robert Polidori photographed what was left behind in this dead zone. His richly detailed images move from the burned-out control room of Reactor 4 — where technicians staged the experiment that caused the disaster — to the unfinished apartment complexes, ransacked schools and abandoned nurseries that remain as evidence of all those people who once called Pripyat home. Photo: Robert Polidori / theglobalist.com — Unit 4 Control Room ( 6-9 June 2001). Declared unfit for human habitation, the “Zones of Exclusion” includes the towns of Pripyat (established in the 1970s to house workers) — and Chernobyl. In May 2001, Robert Polidori photographed what was left behind in this dead zone. His richly detailed images move from the burned-out control room of Reactor 4 — where technicians staged the experiment that caused the disaster — to the unfinished apartment complexes, ransacked schools and abandoned nurseries that remain as evidence of all those people who once called Pripyat home. Photo: Robert Polidori / theglobalist.com

Wild vines creep through the windows of a deserted house near the shuttered Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. After a Chernobyl reactor exploded 25 years ago, Soviet authorities created an exclusion zone with a radius of 19 miles (30 kilometers). More than 130,000 people in 76 towns and settlements were forced to leave their homes. Photo: Damir Sagolj / REUTERS — Wild vines creep through the windows of a deserted house near the shuttered Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. After a Chernobyl reactor exploded 25 years ago, Soviet authorities created an exclusion zone with a radius of 19 miles (30 kilometers). More than 130,000 people in 76 towns and settlements were forced to leave their homes. The exclusion zone still exists, and special permission is required to visit. But as many as 800 mostly elderly residents have illegally moved back to their villages there. Photo: Damir Sagolj / REUTERS

'Vitaly,' child victim of Chernobyl fallout, in 1995. Photo: Аnatoly Кleschuk — ‘Vitaly,’ child victim of Chernobyl fallout, in 1995. Photo: Аnatoly Кleschuk

'Vitaly,' child victim of Chernobyl fallout, in 2005. Photo: Аnatoly Кleschuk — ‘Vitaly,’ child victim of Chernobyl fallout, in 2005. Photo: Аnatoly Кleschuk

On 7-30 April 2006, the National Arts Gallery will played host to an artistic-documentary photo exhibition “The Pain Abates Slowly” on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster (collected online here: Anatol Kjashchuk: Sguardi di bimbi). The photo exhibition is aimed at conveying the hardness and tragedy of the time which brought numerous victims and heavy losses to Belarus, today’s time which slowly heals the wounds and assuages the pain, the time for meditation and warning which gives hope on the top of everything. The pictures of the exhibition do not just ascertain personal tragedies, they are an attempt to notice the dangerous reality behind these tragedies: the Chernobyl is alive and continues to be unsafe.

A tree grows through the floor of a gym in Pripyat. Photo: Alexandr Vikulov / englishrussia.com

Hundreds of pieces of Russian army hardware are left on the small field near Chernobyl. All of this machinery participated in Chernobyl accident liquidation and is radioactive from top to toe. Now it dies out under the open skies of deserted Chernobyl. Photo: Jani Karvonen / englishrussia.com

Classroom in the abandoned city of Pripyat, 2009. Photo: Dennis Yakimchuk / englishrussia.com

A birch forest near Pripyat that is contaminated by radiation from the Chernobyl explosion. Photo: pripyat.com

So this is probably the strangest photo-session from Chernobyl. It has been conducted in the abandoned amusements park, showing the harsh reality of man/woman relations in Chernobyl area. If some girl wants to date a boy in Chernobyl park, they for sure need to wear some protective suits, but these suits isn’t a big barrier when there is passion between them. Photo: englishrussia.com

“Duga”, the Steel Giant near Chernobyl, a few miles away from the exploded nuclear power plant. This one is one of three built by Russian army during the Iron Curtain times. It was used for some of their military purposes but as you can see is abandoned now. Photo: englishrussia.com

A dosimeter outside the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant reads the current radiation dose — 20 to 30 times higher than normal background levels. At left is the concrete 'Sarcophagus' built over destroyed reactor #4, where the meltdown occurred during a late-night safety test. The sarcophagus leaks and is structurally unstable. Construction workers preparing foundations for a replacement 'New Safe Confinement' sometimes reach their daily dosage limits in two to three hours. Photo: Michael Forster Rothbart / afterchernobyl.com — A dosimeter outside the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant reads the current radiation dose — 20 to 30 times higher than normal background levels. At left is the concrete ‘Sarcophagus’ built over destroyed reactor #4, where the meltdown occurred during a late-night safety test. The sarcophagus leaks and is structurally unstable. Construction workers preparing foundations for a replacement ‘New Safe Confinement’ sometimes reach their daily dosage limits in two to three hours. Photo: Michael Forster Rothbart / afterchernobyl.com

March 28, 2011
After Chernobyl: Photographs by Michael Forster Rothbart In the 25th anniversary year of the Chernobyl nuclear accident, this stirring exhibit examines the everyday life and struggles of people living in the disaster’s wake. The exhibit continued through May 20, 2011. Exhibit Description:
When a reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded in April 1986, it sent radioactive contamination across the world. In Belarus, Russia and Ukraine, 350,000 people lost their homes. Some 850,000 participated in the clean-up efforts. Now 25 years later, six million people continue to live in contaminated areas. The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone in Ukraine remains a terra incognita: closed to the public, inaccessible, misunderstood, alternately feared and forgotten, and used as a political weapon by competing interest groups. After Chernobyl: Photographs by Michael Forster Rothbart documents the experiences and everyday struggles of people living in the wake of Chernobyl. Through the images and stories shared in the exhibit, visitors will learn why thousands of people still work or live inside the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone a generation after the accident; why so many remain nearby in their radiation-affected villages; and how people cope with the unexpected life changes caused by the accident.