Growth and Decay: Pripyat and the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

by David McMillan (Photographer), David Baillargeon (Contributor)

Since 1994 Scottish-born Canadian photographer David McMillan (born 1945) has journeyed 21 times to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. Inspired by his teenage memories of Nevil Shute's On the Beach (1957), a disturbing vision of the world following nuclear war, McMillan found in Pripyat the embodiment of an irradiated city still standing but void of human life. As one of the first artists to gain access to "The Zone," McMillan initially explored the evacuated areas with few constraints and in solitude, save for an occasional scientist monitoring the effects of radioactivity. Returning year after year enabled him to revisit the sites of earlier photographs--sometimes fortuitously, sometimes by design--bearing witness to the forces of nature as they reclaimed the abandoned communities. Above all, his commitment has been to probe the relentless dichotomy between growth and decay in The Zone.

Genres: Nonfiction, Photography, History, Adult

262 pages, Hardcover

Published April 23, 2019

Reviews

[Sara the Librarian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Part chronicle of one of the single greatest disasters in world history and part meditation on the power of nature this is one that will take up permanent residence in your brain and return to you at odd moments. I keep seeing images from the frozen city of Pripyat everywhere from the grocery store to the playground at my sons' school. I find myself looking for fading ruins when I'm walking through the woods or imagining what my own house might look like twenty years from now if I were to just leave everything just as it is and walk away.

It feels weird to call this book beautiful but its undeniable that these images captured at various points in time over twenty-five years by the brilliant photographer David McMillan are just that. There's something strangely hopeful in the way nature is winning in its reclamation war against the ruin of nuclear disaster. Though its impossible to describe the empty kindergaarten classrooms and deserted parks as anything less then haunting. The colors of the toys left on shelves and a sweater still hanging over a chair as still strangely bright and eye catching as though their owners have just stepped out for a cup of coffee. You keep expecting to see people or at least signs of some kind of human life but it never appears.

Beautiful and devastating and very worth a look.

*I have NO idea why "spoiler alert" shows up at the beginning of this review. I think we're all aware of the Chernobyl disaster, which occurred over thirty years ago so what Goodreads thinks I'm spoiling is beyond me.

[Meg · Rating 5 out of 5]

A stunning and hypnotizing step inside the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, as promised. Though I was interested in finding some photographs from sooner after the disaster (late '80s, maybe), this book focuses on the region's evolution from the 1990s to the present. I found McMillan's juxtaposition of an untouched town versus the nature that is changing it to be fascinating. One of the book's strengths lies in side-by-side comparisons of the same spot, decades apart, with nature slowly reclaiming and dismantling schools, buildings, wreckage.

[Sanjay Banerjee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Since 1994, David McMilan has traveled 22 times to The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone to photograph and visually document his vision of the area following the nuclear accident. Focusing mainly on the sites around Nuclear Power Plant, the village of Prypiat that had come up to house the families of the employees of the Power Plant and the town of Chornobyl within the 30 Km zone, the author - through his photographs - narrates the effect of the holocaust, the growth and decay as the embodiment of the Zone that is still standing but devoid of human life.

[Jason Medina · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an excellent book. It is exactly what I've been looking for, once my obsession with Prypiat began. These great photos ranging from 1994 to the present show the decay of the city over time. I only wish there were more photos. I wanted it to keep going. Excellent work on stitching photos together to create panoramic views. The essay at the end was informative and interesting. I hope there will be a second volume someday.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great pictures of a very sad subject.

[Shadee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful photographs and such a fascinating topic!

[Willow]

Beautiful photography.