Today marks the 25th Anniversary of the tragedy that occurred at the Chernobyl plant in the Ukraine. I was there for the 20th anniversary, a few weeks before the rest of the media descended and it still remains as the one trip that still stays with me.

If there’s one memory that will never go, it would be the silence. It really was like nature had reclaimed the region. No humans, no pollution or modern life, just decaying buildings and old possessions scattered around. During the three days I spent in the area, I became friends with Rimma Kiselitsa, the woman who helped me understand what happened and was one of the heroes of Chernobyl as much as the firefighters and first responders were.

Sitting outside eating food she had prepared at home, you weren’t advised to eat/drink anything from the area for obvious reasons, I learned more from her in those three days than I had done weeks before preparing. She got me access to areas, was understanding when I muttered “i really need to get in there” and always had a smile.

So whilst many will be remembering the disaster today, and rightly so, I’ll be raising a small glass of Ukrainian vodka to Rimma and be saying “ура і до побачення мій друг”

Abandoned: Life in the Exclusion Zone

I’ve created a multimedia slideshow with my Chernobyl images and would really love some feedback on the show.
You can view it here

View over Pripyat

I guess it’s apt that this image marks the 1000th image posted to this blog. Shot in 2006 during the Chernobyl documentary I did, it has a special place in my archive. A massive thanks to all of you who do visit, even though you all remain pretty silent, it’s nice to know you still come back

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Chernobyl Reactor Number 4

Chernobyl Checkpoint

Going through the archives, I decided to re-sort my Chernobyl documentary and also do some additional editing. If you hop on over to DanielCuthbert.com, you can see additional images

Maternity beds inside Pripyat hospital
Today is the 20th anniversary of the accident and also the last image of the Chernobyl series. Here’s hoping that people don’t forget the real cost of the race for energy!

Nature reclaims Pripyat
The one thing that is still fresh in my mind about Chernobyl is how nature has reclaimed it back from man (and woman). Even though it was freezing, you could see life flourishing where man hasn’t. Maybe old mother nature isn’t as stupid as we humans think!

Pripyat hospital entrance: One wonders how many people have sat on these chairs and what’s happened to them since?

Medicine found inside Pripyat hospital: Forgot what exactly this medicine did, but it helped someone at some point in time.

Medicine found inside Pripyat hospital