Gerd Ludwig is a photojournalist who created a photo book from his twenty year long coverage of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. In describing the book Gerd states, ” I want this photo book to stand as a complete document of this man-made disaster, to remember the countless victims of Chernobyl, and to warn future generations of the deadly consequences of human hubris.”
On April 26th 1986, the worlds worst nuclear disaster to date occurred. The cataclysmic event occurred after a botched safty test. It was projected that 350,000 people were driven from their homes, from a radioactive fallout that spread over tens of thousands of square miles. The land around the reactor known as the Exclusion Zone is said to be inhabitable for the near future. Cleanup crews ranging from 800,000 were exposed to the harmful radiation. Thousands have died in the aftermath and, ” the long cloud of Chernobyl,” still lingers.
Gerd has entered the the Chernobyl Zone nine times, on assignment from National Geographic. His first visit was in 1993, exploring the pollution in the former Soviet Union. He returned several times in 2005, for a more in depth cover story. According to Gerd,” During my visits I captured post apocalyptic scenes of abandonment- trees growing through streets, schools rotting, and apartment buildings littered with personal belongings left behind by those who hastily fled their homes in fear.” In the Excusion zone Gerd photographed elderly returnees who, despite radiation,came back to live out their lives at home. Gerd has also been the closet to the damage reactor than any Western documentary photographer. On the Outside Zone, Gerd met and documented the victims, ranging from children suffering from physical and mental disorders, as well as those affected by the dramatic rise in cancers in the nuclear fallout area of Ukraine and Belarus.
On the eve of the twenty fifth anniversary in 2011, the fund me campaign knowned as Kickstarter sent Gerd back to continue his coverage. This visit led to several exhibitions for Gerd, in Europe, as well as an award winning IPad app,”The Long Shadow of Chernobyl, an interactive digital book.
Gerd once again returned in March of 2011, where an earthquake triggered a tsunami in Japan, causing the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Gerd reiterates, ” the accident at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant is a powerful reminders that disasters like Chernobyl are a possible outcome of nuclear power- anytime, anywhere.” Finally Gerd states, “Ultimately however at the core of my photographs are the people who continue to suffer this tragedy. I am driven by the duty to act in the name of these silent victims,to give them a voice.”
Zolotoy Kluchik (Golden Key) is the name of a kindergarten in Pripyat. At present it is one of the few (out of the 16 some kindergartens that once existed in Pripyat) which is shown to tourists on a regular basis. Everything in the place is obviously rearranged either by tourist or to cater to their expectations. As this has been going on for quite some time now, many of the rearrangement show a patina and therefore feel authentic to the uncritical observer.