Hammer And Sickle And Star.

Abandoned Light Pole fixtures on Kurchatova St. Pripyat.

My Fine Art America website

1918

Seen near the southern end of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.

Obviously this was a "posed" picture. (Not by me.  I found it this way). It's very unlikely a postcard would have survived the elements for 26 years.

My Fine Art America website

Poster in Pripyat

Part of my ongoing C H E R N O B Y L - 2 0 1 2 series.

I meant to finish it up last year, but didn't.

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Long Abandoned

Seen near the southern end of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.

My Fine Art America website

Best of the Year, 2012 (11 of 12)

The top 12 of 2012, in no particular order.

C H E R N O B Y L - 2 0 1 2

Walk the streets of any city, and after a few hours you begin to think you have a feel for that place. But out of curiosity, you seek out a higher view. You find a nice hill to climb, or find a statue or a building with a dominating view, and you get a totally different feel of the place. On the ground, you are like ants, and you get an ant's eye view. On higher ground, you soar like a bird, and then, only then, can you really begin to see and understand what a place is about.

Pripyat is like that.

Read more at link below photo!  

Best of the Year, 2012 (6 of 12)

Chernobyl Reactor and Monument, Chernobyl. Ukraine

The top 12 of 2012 – in no particular order.

My Fine Art America website

Best of the Year, 2012 (3 of 12)

Ferris Wheel, Pripyat Ukraine

The top 12 of 2012 - in no particular order.

My Fine Art America website

Best of the Year, 2012 (1 of 12)

Slam Dunked

The Top 12 of 2012 ~ In no particular order.  

I'll be presenting my top 12 photos of 2012 over the next two weeks.

Abandoned gymnasium, Pripyat, Ukraine

Part of the C H E R N O B Y L - 2 0 1 2 series.

My Fine Art America website

The Chair, Pripyat

C H E R N O B Y L - 2 0 1 2

Some have wondered how this chair came to find a home on the street instead of in the hospital. My theory?

Photographers!


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View from the Hotel Polissya

C H E R N O B Y L - 2 0 1 2

Walk the streets of any city, and after a few hours you begin to think you have a feel for that place. But out of curiosity, you seek out a higher view. You find a nice hill to climb, or find a statue or a building with a dominating view, and you get a totally different feel of the place. On the ground, you are like ants, and you get an ant's eye view. On higher ground, you soar like a bird, and then, only then, can you really begin to see and understand what a place is about.

Pripyat is like that.

On the ground, you experience the encroachment of nature, the streets and parks and playgrounds mutating into paths through a wooded forest. In such an environment, there couldn't possible a threat of radiation. But on high, you get a distinctly different view. You see a city and what certainly was a wonderful place to live and to raise a family. And you see a place, that at the height of its grandeur, was abandoned to forces beyond its control. You see what was, and envision what could have been. And you get a firm reminder that no matter how much man likes to think he can control nature and the planet, that it is all transitory. One mistake, one careless moment, and what took decades to build is abandoned to the capricious will of Mother Nature, and left to return to her domain.

Looking at Pripyat from on high, one sees destruction and man's work falling apart. But what actually happened here? Some might think the Chernobyl accident caused the blown out windows and the crumbling facades. But you'd be wrong. And twenty-six years of neglect and weathering only explains a part of the story. The story of Pripyat's destruction is much more basic than that. Most of it was manmade. Here's what happened.

A long time after the initial evacuation, former residents were allowed back to gather furniture and belongings of their former life. As long as it was not overly radioactive and as long as they could transport it themselves, they were allowed to remove it.

Parts of Pripyat were further occupied on and off for an additional 12 years, because clean-up workers needed a place to stay. Clean-up workers took whatever furniture and other goods they needed.

Next were the looters. When the Soviet Union fell, millions were thrown into poverty. And poor people did what poor people have always done. They did whatever they could to survive. The government clamped down hard on looters, because all kinds of radioactive goods started to appear on the black market. But the damage to Pripyat was done.

Later, once radiation levels had dropped substantially, the government awarded contracts to salvagers to remove and recycle anything of value that fell below a certain level of radioactivity. Pipes, radiators, electrical wiring, window frames.

And lastly, for many years, former residents of Pripyat were allowed to return for one day a year, to reminisce about their former homes and lives. Families would bring their teenagers, but teens, being teens, would drink and smash whatever they could find.

Chernobyl #4 from Hotel Polissya

C H E R N O B Y L - 2 0 1 2

This is a photo I was not supposed to have gotten. At times, the rules about entering buildings can be quite strict; at other times they seem to be more lax. On our trip, our guide was quite serious about us following the rules, of which every one of us broke at one time or another. On other trips, entry into buildings seems to have much fewer restrictions.

The cranes on the right are part of the project to build a new containment structure. Implementation is expected before Chernobyl's 30 year anniversary in 2016.

Abandoned Apartment Block, Pripyat

C H E R N O B Y L - 2 0 1 2

Right near the central square, Pripyat Ukraine.

Chernobyl Monument and Reactor

C H E R N O B Y L - 2 0 1 2 

It's been a while since I've posted some of my Chernobyl/Pripyat photos, and I still have quite a few not yet posted, so here goes...

This area is generally a restricted area when it comes to photography, but there is this place right in front of the reactor, near this monument, where photography is allowed.

Cooling Towers, Chernobyl

C H E R N O B Y L - 2 0 1 2

These were to be the cooling towers for Chernobyl reactors #5 and #6. Construction on the #5 and #6 reactors continued after the Chernobyl disaster, but construction was finally abandoned in 1989, three years after the accident.

These were also the first cooling towers constructed for any of the Chernobyl reactors. Reactors #1-4 did not have them.

Boulevard of Broken Dreams

This was certainly a bit of a difficult shot to work with, since I'm taking the photo in the direction of the sun.  It wasn't all that interesting technically coming straight out of camera, yet something about this spoke to me about the experience of being in this place.  Using some HDR techniques on one original exposure, I was able to rescue what would have otherwise been not all that interesting, or even good, photo.

This was taken at our first stop in Pripyat and the building is the tallest building in the town.  Height is 16 floors.

1959

Seen in a former town at the southern end of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.  The town itself didn't seem to be all that big, but this building was.

C H E R N O B Y L - 2 0 1 2

Suzy Doesn't Play Here Anymore

Wall Graffiti, seen in Pripyat, Ukraine.

C H E R N O B Y L - 2 0 1 2

Firefighters Memorial, Chernobyl

Erected in the memory of those who fought the fires at the Chernobyl reactor, and those who lost their lives, that day and all the days after.

The Spirit of Soviet Industry

C H E R N O B Y L - 2 0 1 2

Display seen in the town of Chernobyl (not at the power plant).

Nothing Yellow About It

Seen at a "Chernobyl graveyard" in Pripyat, one of many vehicle graveyards around the Chernobyl/Pripyat area.  This is *not* the main Chernobyl vehicle graveyard, which was declared off-limits in 2008. Apparently vehicles stored at that location were removed by authorities, spread far and wide, wrapped in plastic, and then buried because of persistant problems with people looting the radioactive remains and selling them on the black market.

Burial of radioactive remains is generally not considered a good solution because underground aquifers become subject to radioactive pollution decades earlier than would normally happen.  That's why the remains were wrapped in plastic.

Oh, and yeah.  I'm not color-blind.  The truck obviously is yellow.  In the US, someone is said to be "yellow" if they run from a fight or a confrontation.  The vehicles here obvious did not run from the fight with the Chernobyl disaster.