This documentary photography was submitted to Edge of Humanity Magazine by Photographer Joanna Borowiec.
Click on any image to see Joanna’s gallery of projects and photographs.
From project “Ghost Town – Czarnobyl” by Joanna Borowiec.
On 26 April 1986, reactor no 4 of the Chernobyl power plant overheated, triggering a hydrogen explosion, fire and radioactive contamination.
This was the biggest nuclear accident in history and one of the biggest industrial disasters of the 20th century.
In just eight hours, Pripyat which was most exposed to hazards of radiation was evacuated and turned into a ghost town.
No one lives in Pripyat anymore. Radiation level is so high that it prevents people from leading normal lives.
Evacuation of the contaminated zone – the so-called zona -began the day after the disaster struck. The exclusion zone spans 30 km and 2,500 square kilometres. Initially, people were evacuated from three towns most exposed to the highest radiation level: Pripyat, Yanov and Kopachi.
Families were relocated to cities across the USSR or to Slavutych – a replacement town located 60 km eastbound from the exclusion zone.
Photos were taken in 2013, twenty seven years after the disaster.
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By Joanna Borowiec
