Trip to Chernobyl

At the beginning of June, I took my Nikon D200 to Ukraine and spent a day in

Kyiv and two days in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.

 

You can view the photos here:

 

http://www.iciclelanding.com/markr

 

I had a focus problem with the camrea in the Chernobyl plant (it had nothing

to do with radiation levels - damn focus mode selector!!!), so the photos of

the control rooms are not in sharp focus, but you can definitely get the idea

of what I saw.

 

I shot all the photos myself, except for several that were taken by friends

with a different camera and are noted as such in the captions.

 

Equipment used:

Nikon D200

Nikon 18-200 VR Lens

Nikon SB-800

Sandisk Extreme III 2GB CF Cards

60GB Hyperdrive HD-80

3 Backup EN-EL3e batteries

Backup AA Lithium Batteries for the SB-800 and HD-80

 

Shot RAW+JPG

 

I wanted to get these photos on line, so only did some quick PP off the JPGs.

I will deal with the RAW photos later when I have time. PP was basic Levels,

Auto Curves, and a little sharpening. The photos were converted to sRGB and

downsized for the web.

 

If you are curious as to how Pripyat looked before the accident in 1986, there

are some photos at this site (captions are in Russian):

 

http://www.pripyat.com/ru/photo_gallery/before_1986/

 

Enjoy,

 

Mark

Top link doesn't work for me.

The top link should work now. The site host had a problem with the server, but it is up again.

You should take a look at Paul Fusco's Chernobyl piece at magnuminmotion.com. It is quite touching. Not for the faint of heart.

Dan, Paul Fusco's work is in a completely different vein from what

Mark was aiming at.

<p>Mark, congratulations on being able to get access, I do notice

subtlety in quite a few of your pictures, which is nice. So far a

lot of them have too much contrast to my liking, but I'm sure that

will get resolved when you sit down on the RAW files.</p>

 

<p>The closest thing that comes to my mind that is also worth

looking at

is <a href="http://www.beeflowers.com/">Bee Flowers</a> work on

Russia.</p>

Good reportage..now you have to work for a good editing and organize your work...the tought of it is really scary, damn...

Eugene and Gabriele,

 

Thank you for your comments. I agree that the editing needs some work. As I said, I wanted to get these photos on line quickly and therefore only did some quick PP on the JPGs to get them looking decent.

 

To do anything serious with these photos such as a show or for publication, I would definitely do more work on the RAW images (which I will do anyway as time permits and re-post with the improved images).

Eugene: I know.

Hm, honestly it makes me think that suddenly - and there are plenty of examples on the web - people are able to take "vacation-adventure" trips to a place like Chernobyl. Once I came across a forum thread on Photoblogs.org were a bunch of people were thinking of taking a trip there together to shoot. An adventure trip. But for which reason? Is it to do serious work or to say "Man, I've been there"?

 

Personally I think that doing work at a place such as in Chernobyl it takes more than a day or two of walking around and shooting. You need time, you need to show more than just empty and destroyed buildings. You need a certain idea and concept of what you want to show.

 

Please don't misunderstand me Mark but I've seen plenty of images that show exaxtly what your images show. So they do not add to a better understanding as I see it. Also as mentioned above, editing is at least as important as shooting. I would like to see an edit of your photographs that is cut down to let's say 10 photographs.

 

Hope you take my criticism right.

 

Best,

Martin

Martin,

 

As to why I went to Chernobyl, I have been studying the accident, evacuation, and aftermath for several years. During that time, I have been in contact with several former residents of Pripyat. I have become good friends with some of them and volunteer some of my time helping them with their website (www.pripyat.com).

 

The first purpose of my trip was to be able to meet some of these people in-person. The second reason was to experience the area first-hand as I felt an emotional need to go. I had the opportunity to travel in the Zone with a former Pripyat resident and that made the experience much more special (and at times sad). I never went there with the sole purpose of making it a formal photo shoot. The photos are a nice addition to the stories and information I gathered while there and to the experience as a whole. Trust me when I tell you that being there is so much different than just looking at pictures of the area.

 

As to the amount of time spent there, I had a limited amount of time to visit the area. Eleven hours of flight time between Detroit and Kyiv basically killed two full days, so that didn't help.

 

The photos I posted in those galleries are there to show people what I saw during the trip - nothing more. In the form of the current presentation, the gallery is not meant to make a statement or in any way be artistic. If I use those photos for a true documentary project in the future, I will take more time with the photo editing, use fewer photos, and also add text descriptions that would put the photos into context related to the accident. For instance, a short narrative about my friend Sasha and his mother would certainly add substance to a photo of their apartment.

 

I do appreciate your comments and understand your viewpoint. If I do some more formal work with these photos, I will certainly keep your comments in mind as you make some valid points.

 

Thanks,

 

Mark

"I think that doing work at a place such as in Chernobyl it takes more than a day or two of

walking around and shooting. You need time, you need to show more than just empty and

destroyed buildings. You need a certain idea and concept of what you want to show."

 

Who sets the rules? Personally, I'd rather see the results of an afternoon stroll at Chernobyl

by Egglestone than a month of work there by, say, Steve McCurry. There are good images

and bad images, how you get there doesn't much matter.

See Paul Fusco's Chernobyl work here:

 

http://www.magnuminmotion.com/