The Chernobyl disaster: a long look at the effects
Gerd Ludwig's photographs of the aftermath of this catastrophic nuclear meltdown tell a story that continues to unfold.
Published 10 Nov 2017, 23:24 GMT, Updated 24 May 2019, 12:17 BST
Not fallout – just snow. But the sign warns of the insidious danger still present.
Photograph by Gerd Ludwig, Institute2005. The evacuated city of Pripyat, once brimming with life, is now a chilling ghost town. For an exiled resident, the stillness of a city boulevard stirs memories of her former life. In her hand is an old photo of the same street years earlier.
Photograph by Gerd Ludwig, Institute2005. A peeling mural of an abandoned school creates a poignant reminder of the residents that once called Pripyat home.
Photograph by Gerd Ludwig, Institute2011. On April 26, 1986, operators in this control room of reactor #4 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant committed a fatal series of errors during a safety-test, triggering a reactor meltdown that resulted in the world’s largest nuclear accident to date.
Photograph by Gerd Ludwig, Institute2005. Workers wearing plastic suits and respirators for protection pause briefly on their way to drill holes for support rods inside the shaky concrete sarcophagus, a structure hastily built after the explosion to isolate the radioactive rubble of Reactor #4. It is hazardous work: radiation inside is so high that they constantly need to monitor their Geiger counters—and are allowed to work only one shift of 15 minutes per day.
Photograph by Gerd Ludwig, Institute2011. Although radiation levels only allowed for a few minutes of access, workers initially had to pass over hazardous ladders to a section underneath the melted core with life-threatening contamination. In order to facilitate faster access, a daunting hallway, called “the leaning staircase” was erected.
Photograph by Gerd Ludwig, Institute2005. Severely physically and mentally handicapped, 5-year-old Igor was given up by his parents and now lives at a children’s mental asylum, which cares for abandoned and orphaned children with disabilities. It is one of several such facilities in rural southern Belarus receiving support from Chernobyl Children International, an aid organization established in 1991 in the aftermath of the world’s worst nuclear disaster.
Photograph by Gerd Ludwig, Institute2005. Suffering from thyroid cancer, Oleg Shapiro, 54, and Dima Bogdanovich, 13, receive care at a thyroid hospital in Minsk, where surgery is performed on a daily basis. As a liquidator, Oleg was exposed to extreme levels of radiation. It was his third thyroid operation. Dima’s mother claims that Chernobyl’s nuclear fallout is responsible for her son’s cancer, but his doctors are more cautious: Belarusian officials are often instructed to downplay the severity of the radiation.
Photograph by Gerd Ludwig, Institute2011. Kharytina Desha, 92, is one of the few elderly people who have returned to their village homes inside the Exclusion Zone. Although surrounded by devastation and isolation, she prefers to die on her own soil.
Photograph by Gerd Ludwig, Institute2011. Vines encroach on an abandoned farmhouse in a remote area of the zone. In villages all over the Evacuation Zone, nature is reclaiming the deserted settlements.
Photograph by Gerd Ludwig, Institute2005. A rooftop view from the former Polissya Hotel in the center of Pripyat shows the proximity of the ill-fated Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant to this former home of 50,000.
Photograph by Gerd Ludwig, Institute