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The Long Shadow of Chernobyl
Opening with an essay by Mikhail Gorbachev, the last head of state of the Soviet Union, awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990, this is a deeply personal journey into a landscape forever changed.
National Geographic photographer Gerd Ludwig, made nine visits to Chernobyl over a period of 20 years; this is his powerful record of an environmental and human tragedy. Through the perspective of the victims living with the emotional and physical aftermath, to the Exclusion Zone created by a massive evacuation (more than 350,000 people by the year 2000), to the abandoned neighboring city of Pripyat, once a scientist's dream in terms of quality of life yet now uninhabitable, it is a record of almost unbelievable suffering and desolation.
Working under enormous time and radiation pressure, Ludwig ventures deeper into the belly of the beast than any other photographer, repeatedly documenting the destroyed reactor No.4, which will disappear under a New Safe Confinement for at least 100 years.
This book does not always make for easy viewing. It is however, an emotive, thought-provoking and necessary testament to one of the twentieth century's worst nuclear disasters. Using documents that until recently have been classified, from the CIA, U.S Government Foreign Press Monitoring, Department of Energy, Department of Defense, GAO and United States Congress of the disaster, it becomes an even more important voice in the continuing political, environmental and economic arguments around the safety of using nuclear energy, particularly in light of the Fukushima disaster in Japan twenty-five years later.
National Geographic photographer Gerd Ludwig, made nine visits to Chernobyl over a period of 20 years; this is his powerful record of an environmental and human tragedy. Through the perspective of the victims living with the emotional and physical aftermath, to the Exclusion Zone created by a massive evacuation (more than 350,000 people by the year 2000), to the abandoned neighboring city of Pripyat, once a scientist's dream in terms of quality of life yet now uninhabitable, it is a record of almost unbelievable suffering and desolation.
Working under enormous time and radiation pressure, Ludwig ventures deeper into the belly of the beast than any other photographer, repeatedly documenting the destroyed reactor No.4, which will disappear under a New Safe Confinement for at least 100 years.
This book does not always make for easy viewing. It is however, an emotive, thought-provoking and necessary testament to one of the twentieth century's worst nuclear disasters. Using documents that until recently have been classified, from the CIA, U.S Government Foreign Press Monitoring, Department of Energy, Department of Defense, GAO and United States Congress of the disaster, it becomes an even more important voice in the continuing political, environmental and economic arguments around the safety of using nuclear energy, particularly in light of the Fukushima disaster in Japan twenty-five years later.
252 pages, Hardcover
First published March 30, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 4, 2016
This is a large sized book filled with incredible photos and written depictions of the horror that was, and remains 30 years later.
As radioactive particles circled the globe, the failure to report the nuclear meltdown of reactor #4, soon become a real force for the Ukraine to deal with.
The destruction continues as a large radius around the epicenter remains highly radioactive. We will never know the exact number impacted by the ineptitude, mismanagement, and faulty construction that is known as the worst radioactive event in the world.
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As radioactive particles circled the globe, the failure to report the nuclear meltdown of reactor #4, soon become a real force for the Ukraine to deal with.
The destruction continues as a large radius around the epicenter remains highly radioactive. We will never know the exact number impacted by the ineptitude, mismanagement, and faulty construction that is known as the worst radioactive event in the world.
Edit | More
March 4, 2015
Here's my review for The Rumpus:
http://therumpus.net/2015/02/the-long...
http://therumpus.net/2015/02/the-long...
October 19, 2016
Documental fotográfico que ilustra la decadencia de los lugares abandonados, los rostros de algunas víctimas supervivientes, y de la gente que habita en la zona de exclusión. Las fotos del reactor y de la ciudad fantasma de Pripyat quizá ya se han visto mucho en la red, no así las de las personas. Las fotografías no alcanzan a transmitir el horror y el alcance de la tragedia, pero quedan como una visión honesta de los efectos del desastre, 25 años después de lo ocurrido.
Irónicamente, y así lo anota el autor en la introducción, el gobierno bielorruso tiene una creciente fuente de ingresos gracias al turismo que poco a poco empieza a invadir (e intervenir con sus acciones) la zona de exclusión, a pesar del peligro que conlleva. Gente loca, mundo más loco todavía.
Irónicamente, y así lo anota el autor en la introducción, el gobierno bielorruso tiene una creciente fuente de ingresos gracias al turismo que poco a poco empieza a invadir (e intervenir con sus acciones) la zona de exclusión, a pesar del peligro que conlleva. Gente loca, mundo más loco todavía.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews