A refugee from the evacuation of Chernobyl’s Exclusion Zone recalls her return to her ancestral home. Many people like her would find ways to go back to their lands after the fall of the Soviet Union by taking advantage of the chaos that followed it, choosing to live and die in the land of their forefathers.
Having endured discrimination in their new homes following relocation, to this day a sizable number of elderly people still live in The Zone, but as the years go by their numbers decrease as old age takes its toll, making them the final inhabitants of the area.
A refugee from the evacuation of Chernobyl’s Exclusion Zone recalls her return to her ancestral home. Many people like her would find ways to go back to their lands after the fall of the Soviet Union by taking advantage of the chaos that followed it, choosing to live and die in the land of their forefathers.
Having endured discrimination in their new homes following relocation, to this day a sizable number of elderly people still live in The Zone, but as the years go by their numbers decrease as old age takes its toll, making them the final inhabitants of the area.
For this photo series, at least for the abandoned places, I have decided to turn the photos’ colors down to transmit the feelings I had when I was on site. But there was one single picture where I could not bring myself to do it. A picture that I had to show in its full vibrant colors.
Inside the post office of Pripyat an incredible piece of art decorates the wall. Protected from the weather it has stayed in good shape for thirty years. It shows Jurij Gagarin, the first human in space. There’s just something about this picture that really gets to me, and I can’t even explain it properly.
The post office, by the way, was not only a place to send and receive letters and parcel. It was also where one went to make a phone call in times when individuals had no phones in their apartments yet.
Another interesting thing in the zone are the murals – several artists have left their works behind on the walls of the abandoned buildings. One of the most interesting series of graffiti shows the animals that can be found throughout the zone. Deer, foxes, horses, wolves, moose and even bears…
Lastly, Pripyat had something that no other Soviet city at the time had. With centralized economy working to government plans, the usual Ukrainian store looked like that: all items were behind a counter, you said what you wanted and it was packaged for you. And how much you could get was decided not by you, but by the government. But in Pripyat, people were supposed to live in the ideal city, in a city that would show the glory of Socialism. So they got a supermarket – one where you could freely take as many items as you want, as long as you could afford them. No limits, no rationing. It was a completely new world for the people of the time.
For this photo series, at least for the abandoned places, I have decided to turn the photos’ colors down to transmit the feelings I had when I was on site. But there was one single picture where I could not bring myself to do it. A picture that I had to show in its full vibrant colors.
Inside the post office of Pripyat an incredible piece of art decorates the wall. Protected from the weather it has stayed in good shape for thirty years. It shows Jurij Gagarin, the first human in space. There’s just something about this picture that really gets to me, and I can’t even explain it properly.
The post office, by the way, was not only a place to send and receive letters and parcel. It was also where one went to make a phone call in times when individuals had no phones in their apartments yet.
Another interesting thing in the zone are the murals – several artists have left their works behind on the walls of the abandoned buildings. One of the most interesting series of graffiti shows the animals that can be found throughout the zone. Deer, foxes, horses, wolves, moose and even bears…
Lastly, Pripyat had something that no other Soviet city at the time had. With centralized economy working to government plans, the usual Ukrainian store looked like that: all items were behind a counter, you said what you wanted and it was packaged for you. And how much you could get was decided not by you, but by the government. But in Pripyat, people were supposed to live in the ideal city, in a city that would show the glory of Socialism. So they got a supermarket – one where you could freely take as many items as you want, as long as you could afford them. No limits, no rationing. It was a completely new world for the people of the time.
We came home. I took off all the clothes I’d worn and threw them down the trash chute. I gave my cap to my son. He really wanted it. And he wore it all the time. Two years later they gave him a diagnosis: a tumor of his brain… You can write the rest of this yourself. I don’t want to talk anymore.
