33 years since Chernobyl’s apocalyptic disaster

Ukrainians lay flowers at the memorial for ‘liquidators’ who died during the cleaning up after the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster during a ceremony in Slavutich city, Ukraine, early 26 April 2019.

In the early hours of 26 April 1986 the Unit 4 reactor at the Chernobyl power station blew apart. Facing nuclear disaster on unprecedented scale Soviet authorities tried to contain the situation by sending thousands of ill-equipped men into a radioactive maelstrom. The explosion of Unit 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is still regarded the biggest nuclear accident in the history of nuclear power generation.

Since 1994, photographer David McMillan has made 21 trips into the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone — and under proper guidance and extreme care has documented the changing landscape as nature slowly reclaims what civilization is left in this nuclear wasteland.

His new book Growth and Decay is the result of these excursions and features some 200 of these haunting and beautiful pictures. Here, McMillan shares with BuzzFeed News a gallery of images from the book and his words on what goes into making a picture in a nuclear fallout zone.

Photo EPA-EFE/SERGEY DOLZHENKO

Discover more from The Dispatch

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading

Verified by MonsterInsights