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mercmanuk

mercmanuk

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Hi all in a past life of mobility we used look after children from Belarus where the young adults and parents came from the "chernobyl" disaster this is a linkto the charity,(info only) but this is where the photography comes in have a read through this and take a look at the haunting pictures, ella who came to our house with a group of children was 7 when the reactor caught fire, she sat in our house and told us of the metal taste in her mouth, and her mum remarking on her incredible sunburn, it was another 6 weeks before they where evacuated, here if you look through the chapters at the botom of the page chapter 25 is very moving ,mods please move if in wrong section but the pictures are worth a look and free plug for the charity appolgies if its been posted before i am sure some of you have seen and read it but thourght it worth a mention.

Regards Mark.
 
If you do a search for Prypiat in flickr you will also see some amazing images of people who have visited a long time after the horrific event.
 
wow after looking at some of them sites and on the flickr i really want to go and see it.
I have often wondered what it would be like to walk through a derolict city
Im not sure how old i was when it happened (if any one could give me the date) but i must of been young.
 
I saw that motorcyclist story of Chernobyl a while ago, it's pretty good although I heard that her photos were kinda fake as she posed next to a bike on a tour of the city which anyone can take.

There's tons of stuff out there on Chernobyl, it's a subject i'm quite interested in and hope to go there one day (perhaps on the 30th aniversary or something, when i'm a bit older and hopefully when I have a descent photojournalism job).

There's a really good one done on the 20th aniversary of the explosion, can't remember the link though. It's like a narrated photo slide-show, really well done.
 
purplepaul said:
wow after looking at some of them sites and on the flickr i really want to go and see it.
I have often wondered what it would be like to walk through a derolict city
Im not sure how old i was when it happened (if any one could give me the date) but i must of been young.
Click to expand...

Hi The plant exploded on April 26, 1986, before you go have a look at the Geiger counter she is holding in her hand these are the levels out side in side the are much much higher, we have children from Belarus whose families are still experiencing problems from the disaster, not only is all the ground contaminated all the buildings but all the plant life and animals and water too, we give the kids a rest bite and fill them up on anything and everything it the month putt's 18 months worth of nutriments back into the body,we take them to dentists, and GP's who are only to happy to help, our last girl weighed in a 3 stone she was 11 years old and she had a chest infection luckily we have a GP friend who we could see streight aay, who gave her a prescription, if you decide to go please, do as much research as you can, this is the guy in charge Belarus is a tyrant here he made no 12 in the world, as for going it's up to you.

8utters said:
I saw that motorcyclist story of Chernobyl a while ago, it's pretty good although I heard that her photos were kinda fake as she posed next to a bike on a tour of the city which anyone can take.

There's tons of stuff out there on Chernobyl, it's a subject i'm quite interested in and hope to go there one day (perhaps on the 30th aniversary or something, when i'm a bit older and hopefully when I have a descent photojournalism job).

There's a really good one done on the 20th aniversary of the explosion, can't remember the link though. It's like a narrated photo slide-show, really well done.
Click to expand...

As you said theres tons of stuff just hope you read the warnings as well. as for the shot being fake it is hard to get in so so you could be right but there was no need to stage the shots inside but iam am sure some where, as we heard from Ella who came to our house, on the evacuation day they where just bundle all together and shipped out the stuff left behind is contaminated, thats why its just strewn allover the floor, and you can only spend so much time in a ghost town with a invisible killer, safety first take 2 vehicles and plenty of water just in case, and don't touch anything inside Buildings the radiations levels are higher inside the buildings, the picture just put everything together for me having met the people it directly affected,

Regards Mark.
 
Well yeah you can't just wander into the exclusion zone (30k radius from the power plant). You have to be taken inside by military personel.

Anyone can go on a visit and take a tour, and there are special spray-painted red rings around certain objects in the city (like some benches and other random stuff) which basicaly means don't touch them at all. If you do, you will me immediately escorted back to safety, striped and decontaminated.

Also if any of your belongings (say your expensive £2,000 kitbag) get contaminated, it's confiscated from you and destroyed...and you won't be getting it back.

There's parts of the city that are safe to walk in, others that are highly dangerous. That's why all the photos you see of Chernobyl will be of only a few different areas of the city (the dodgem cars from outside the arena bit, the ferris wheel, inside the school and school gymnasium, in a few shops and one or two appartment blocks).

It's such a dangerous place to visit though, there's pockets of radiation hidden in corners so you can't go without a guide who will always take a geiger counter (i'd definately take one too if I was going there, ESSENTIAL bit of kit, should be number 1 on your list).

It's said to be an area that humans will not be able to populate for hundres of years, some scientists say over 900 years until the contamination wears off.

Wildlife is said to be blossoming though, wild horses are breeding like crazy, loads of mutations and mixed-specials animals are forming so it's a very interesting place to visit. I'd love to go there sometime soon, excellent photo opportunity.
 
There are people who live in the dead zone, and have not been affected, mainly old people who would not leave or who went back , every know and then they will shoot a couple of wild pigs or others to check on the radiation, it's just a sad place, they where very happy the community in chernobyl ella told us that it was thriving in there standards until this happened, but now they live in misery in the tower block areas of Belarus, fathers mothers dieing of all cancer related problems that are past on to generation after generation Ella told us she would never have any children, if you ever get the chance have a look at the life line appeal and you could become a host family you never know.

I have read the words of the biker girl who went on a site seeing trip ans there is alot of miss information ....evacuation was 6 weeks later not the day after, local clean up squads where recruted from locals and paid pennys ...they ended up paying with there lives, no-body new about the invisable killer, 6 weeks and that was from the horses mouth so to speak.

Regards Mark.
 
No evacuation of the town took place the day after (on April 27th) the explosion. If they had waited 6 weeks most of the people would have died...

Yep they didn't know the full extent of the damage for a while, and loads of firemen and clean-up crews gave their lives...not knowing how dangerous the contamination was.

And yeah you are right, there are a few people still left in the dead zone who have miraculously been un-harmed by the accident.

There's a website (the one I posted about a few posts ago in this topic) which shows the terrible mutations of some of the children (like giant heads, deformed limbs etc), it's really moving.

The BBC has a good '20 Years On' report on their site:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/europe/2006/chernobyl/default.stm
 
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