PRIPYAT AND CHERNOBYL

In the eleven days following the Chernobyl catastrophe of April 26, 1986, more than 116,000 people were permanently evacuated from the area surrounding the nuclear power plant. Declared uninhabitable, the exclusion zones include the cities of Pripyat and Chernobyl. In May 2001, Robert Polidori photographed what was left of this dead zone. His detailed images take us from the burnt-out control room of Reactor 4, where the technicians staged the experiment that caused the disaster, to the unfinished apartment complexes, looted schools and abandoned daycare centers that remain as testament to those who once called Pripyat home. Nearby, trucks and tanks used in cleanup operations rest in a car graveyard, some covered in lead roofing and others robbed of parts. Houseboats and barges rust in the polluted waters of the Pripyat River. The foliage grows on the sidewalks and hides the modest houses of the Chernobyl town. Polidori captures the faded colors and desolate atmosphere of Pripyat and Chernobyl in his large-scale photographs. His images are haunting documents that present the reader with a rare insight into not just a disastrous event, but a place and the people who lived there.