Back in October 2018, I’ve decided to overcome my anxiety, fear and misconceptions and make a lifelong dream come true. When it comes about my photo project’s “checklist”, one of the most thrilling and daring plans I had was to visit Chernobyl. So I did it!
Even the thought of going there was frightening me. But that was ok, because I’m just a human. Actually, after all, I understood that my biggest fear was not the radiation itself. My biggest fear was not to have enough chocolate around me. So, the main message of this photo trip for me would be: “Listen to your heart, it will guide you on the right path”
Today, Chernobyl is a kind of self-correcting system, as you may see. Yes, I felt the air of the past, but in the same time I felt I was in the future, where the process of renewal is going on and nature is defeating civilization.
I'm trying to say that the reality about this place can be so much different from the one you got used to, the one you saw on post-apocalyptic pictures all around the internet. When you see it for real you literally "smell" the difference. I'm trying to say that Chernobyl is not just about the nuclear disaster. It also about nature, light and colour.
But as you can see, images can speak sometimes louder than words. Lucky me! Here you have the life after Chernobyl nuclear disaster, as seen through my eyes and my camera.
Enjoy!
More info: Instagram
Pripyat River
A Slice of Life
Thundering Silence in Pripyat
Clasonia Stellaris - Irradiated Lichens
Life and Colors
An amusement park in the center of the abandoned town of Pripyat
Pripyat - abandoned town
Image credits: www.instagram.com
Pripyat lies only a few kilometers from the former Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant and was built in the 1970s to house the plant's workers and their families. Today Pripyat is a ghost-town, its apartment buildings, shops, restaurants, hospital, schools, cultural center, and sports facilities derelict and its streets overgrown with trees.
A view of the abandoned city of Pripyat
Abandoned home in Zalesye
The Soviet over-the-horizon Radar System "DUGA"
An abandoned Soviet Cold War - era radar system known as "Russian Woodpecker" used to detect incoming missiles stands inside the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.
Famous Abandoned Kindergarten
Forgotten Toy in Zalessye
A playground in the deserted town of Pripyat
Never Used The Ferris Wheel in Pripyat
Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant
This gigantic steel arch was built to cover the remnants of the exploded reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.