Videographer uses drone to capture footage of Pripyat, Chernobyl
"Some tragedies never end. Ask people to name a nuclear disaster and most will probably point to Fukushima in Japan three years ago. The nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl in Ukraine was 30 years ago, but the crisis is still with us today. That's because radiation virtually never dies. After the explosion in 1986, the Soviets built a primitive sarcophagus, a tomb to cover the stricken reactor. But it wasn't meant to last very long and it hasn't. Engineers say there is still enough radioactive material in there to cause widespread contamination. For the last five years a massive project has been underway to seal the reactor permanently. But the undertaking is three quarters of a billion dollars short and the completion date has been delayed repeatedly. Thirty years later, Chernobyl's crippled reactor still has the power to kill."
(Bob Simon, 23 November 2014, CBS News)
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Simon PerkinsSHARE
Heavy Water: a film for Chernobyl
"On April 26th, 1986, reactor four at Chernobyl nuclear power station explodes, sending an enormous radioactive cloud over Northern Ukraine and neighbouring Belarus. The danger is kept a secret from the rest of the world and the nearby population who go about their business as usual. May Day celebrations begin, children play and the residents of Pripyat marvel at the spectacular fire raging at the reactor. After three days, an area the size of England becomes contaminated with radioactive dust, creating a 'zone' of poisoned land.
Produced by Seventh Art Productions and based on Mario Petrucci's award–winning book–length poem, Heavy Water: a film for Chernobyl tells the story of the people who dealt with the disaster at ground–level: the fire–fighters, the soldiers, the 'liquidators', and their families."
(Seventh Art Productions)
'Heavy Water: a film for Chernobyl' (2007). Directed by David Bickerstaff and Phil Grabsky, Poetry by Mario Petrucci, 52 minutes
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Simon PerkinsSHARE
A personal story of the materiality of contamination
Yelena Popova's reflections on the materiality of contamination and the Kyshtym nuclear disaster of the 9th September 1957.
Fig.1 Yelena Popova (2010). still from 'Unnamed', short artist documentary telling a personal story of a secret town in Russia, 10 minutes.
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Simon PerkinsSHARE
Chernobyl legacy: photographic essay with audio commentary
"On April 26th, 1986, Chernobyl's Reactor No. 4 unleashed a thoroughly modern plague that emptied cities, condemned entire regions, and seeped invisibly into the bodies of those exposed to its destructive presence."
(Paul Fusco, Magnum In Motion)
[Photographer Paul Fusco faces the dark legacy of Chernobyl, focusing on the horrifying human consequences of the event that is now 20 years in the past. Fusco's work forces us to remember an important nightmare that we would forget at the peril of our morality and our future.]
Fig.1 Photographic essay (with audio commentary) created by Paul Fusco about the human cost of the Chernobyl disaster.
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The Constellations ProjectSHARE
