An abandoned bus rusts away in the forest near Lyutezh, Ukraine, south of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. Outside the 30-kilometer zone are thousands of small villages such as Lyutezh in Vyshgorodskiy raion, where the land was also contaminated by radioactive fallout. People continue to live here despite possibly higher incidences of diseases such as cancer, and many receive small government pensions for their status as Chernobyl survivors. © Michael Forster Rothbart Photography www.mfrphoto.com ¥ 608-242-1131 64 Lansing St, Madison, WI 53714 info@mfrphoto.com Photo by: Michael Forster Rothbart Date: 5/2007 File#: Canon 20D digital camera frame 6582
A dosimeter shows the current radiation level outside the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. In the background is Fourth Block of the plant, where the Chernobyl accident occurred on April 26, 1986 during an ill-advised late night safety test. After 21 years, the radiation outside the plant remains high enough that stopping here for more than a brief period is not recommended. Nevertheless, this site is one of many which tourists visit during a one-day excursion into the Exclusion Zone. Chernobyl has become one of Ukraine's hottest tourist destinations. © Michael Forster Rothbart Photography www.mfrphoto.com ¥ 608-242-1131 64 Lansing St, Madison, WI 53714 info@mfrphoto.com Photo by: Michael Forster Rothbart Date: 4/2007 File#: Canon 20D digital camera frame 4785
Slavutich, Ukraine, is the new city built after the Chernobyl accident for evacuees from Pripyat, the abandoned city in the Exclusion Zone. Nearly 4,000 out of the 25,000 inhabitants still work at Chernobyl today, commuting through Belarus on 3 special ÒelektrichkaÓ trains that depart between 6:30 and 7:30 each morning. In the evening, the workers walk home from the train station past the Silpo supermarket. © Michael Forster Rothbart Photography www.mfrphoto.com ¥ 207-445-5227 86 Three Mile Pond Rd., Vassalboro ME 04989 info@mfrphoto.com Photo by: Michael Forster Rothbart Date: 10/2008 File#: Canon 20D digital camera frame 50862
Viktor and Lydia Gaidak sit in their apartment in Desnyanskiy district at the outskirts of Kyiv. Viktor worked for 24 years at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, including 9 years after the 1986 catastrophe. In 2004 he had surgery for colon cancer. "When I was sick with cancer," says Gaidak, a retired engineer and liquidator, "we sold our car to pay for the surgery. We sold our TV, we sold our refrigerator, jewelry, everything we could. Now my wife Lydia has cancer and there's nothing left to sell." Many of the former residents of the Chernobyl exclusion zone were relocated here. More than twenty years later, nearly half of the 46,000 residents of the city of Pripyat still live in Desnyanskiy raion, where they struggle with health problems, unemployment, overflowing apartments and little government support. © Michael Forster Rothbart Photography www.mfrphoto.com ¥ 608-242-1131 64 Lansing St, Madison, WI 53714 info@mfrphoto.com Photo by: Michael Forster Rothbart Date: 4/2007 File#: Canon 20D digital camera frame 4662
After Chernobyl Part 3: Life. © Michael Forster Rothbart Photography www.mfrphoto.com ¥ 207-445-5227 86 Three Mile Pond Rd., Vassalboro ME 04989 info@mfrphoto.com Photo by: Michael Forster Rothbart Date: 11/2008 File#: Canon 20D digital camera frame
View from the Solntsye kindergarten in Pripyat, the abandoned city next to the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. © Michael Forster Rothbart Photography www.mfrphoto.com ¥ 608-242-1131 64 Lansing St, Madison, WI 53714 info@mfrphoto.com Photo by: Michael Forster Rothbart Date: 4/2007 File#: Canon 20D digital camera frame 4139
After Chernobyl Part 1: Loss. © Michael Forster Rothbart Photography www.mfrphoto.com ¥ 207-445-5227 86 Three Mile Pond Rd., Vassalboro ME 04989 info@mfrphoto.com Photo by: Michael Forster Rothbart Date: 11/2008 File#: Canon 20D digital camera frame
Father Momotyuk Nazarii, the village priest at the church in Novo Ladizhichi, Ukraine, goes Christmas caroling with members of his congregation to celebrate Ukrainian Orthodox Christmas, January 7, 2009. The group spent two days going door to door all over Sukachi and Novo Ladizhichi, singing, offering blessings, and collecting donations for the church. When people gave them candy and fruit, they redistributed it to children and elderly residents. Novo Ladizhichi was built in 1987 to house evacuees from the original village of Ladizhichi following the 1986 Chernobyl accident. © Michael Forster Rothbart Photography www.mfrphoto.com ¥ 207-445-5227 86 Three Mile Pond Rd., Vassalboro ME 04989 info@mfrphoto.com Photo by: Michael Forster Rothbart Date: 1/2009 File#: Canon 5D digital camera frame 50497
The village cemetery in Sukachi, 20 kilometers south of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, is full of liquidators who served in the clean-up efforts after the Chernobyl accident. On Victory Day (May 9, 2007), Nadiya Ivanivna Shumak and her family visit the grave of her husband Mikhail Fedorovich Shumak, who died in October 2006 at the age of 61 with heart problems possibly caused by radiation. Since he lived nearby, Mikhail volunteered as a liquidator, cleaning contaminated vehicles in 1986 and doing construction and repair of canals in 1989. ÒHowever, he was without papers,Ó says Nadiya. ÒThey didnÕt document him on a komandarovka, didnÕt write down his name,Ó so that later, he did not qualify for a pension or benefits. ÒChernobyl was a dangerous timeÓ says MikhailÕs cousin Ivan Mertel of Ivankiv. ÒThere was one with a respirator and ten without. Now no one knows what is clean and what is dirty.Ó Also pictured: NadiyaÕs daughter Tanya, grand-daughter Yana, age 3. Sukachi village is just north of Ivankiv and has population of 1,200. © Michael Forster Rothbart Photography www.mfrphoto.com ¥ 608-242-1131 64 Lansing St, Madison, WI 53714 info@mfrphoto.com Photo by: Michael Forster Rothbart Date: 5/2007 File#: Canon 20D digital camera frame 6949
View after sunrise of the hilltop Pechersk Lavra monastery in Kyiv, Ukraine, which dates to 1051 A.D., with an out-of-focus fencepost at the center of the image. © Michael Forster Rothbart Photography www.mfrphoto.com ¥ 608-242-1131 64 Lansing St, Madison, WI 53714 info@mfrphoto.com Photo by: Michael Forster Rothbart Date: 2/2007 File#: Canon 20D digital camera frame 9027
Two women pray and read from the Bible as Ukrainians crowd into the Church of the Assumption (Uspensky Cathedral) in the Pechersk Lavra monastery in Kyiv, Ukraine for an all-night Eastern Orthodox Easter service, on April 8, 2007. © Michael Forster Rothbart Photography www.mfrphoto.com ¥ 608-242-1131 64 Lansing St, Madison, WI 53714 info@mfrphoto.com Photo by: Michael Forster Rothbart Date: 4/2007 File#: Canon 20D digital camera frame 2220
A woman disembarks from a bus, as seen out the bus window on a foggy fall morning, on the road from Kyiv to Slavutich, Ukraine. This series was shot through a small hole wiped clear on the fogged bus window. © Michael Forster Rothbart Photography www.mfrphoto.com ¥ 207-445-5227 86 Three Mile Pond Rd., Vassalboro ME 04989 info@mfrphoto.com Photo by: Michael Forster Rothbart Date: 10/2008 File#: Canon 20D digital camera frame 1
Sasha Starovoitenko (in suit jacket) leads an Alcoholics Anonymous 12-Step meeting in the Chernobyl Community Center in Borodyanka, Ukraine. Sasha was a liquidator in Chernobyl, serving in the army during the clean-up effort following the 1986 catastrophe. Afterwards, he began to drink and spent many years as an alcoholic. Today he serves as an alcohol prevention counselor for the community center. Borodyanka is a small town (population 16,000) 48 miles south of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, where many Chernobyl evacuees were resettled in 1986. © Michael Forster Rothbart Photography www.mfrphoto.com ¥ 608-242-1131 64 Lansing St, Madison, WI 53714 info@mfrphoto.com Photo by: Michael Forster Rothbart Date: 3/2007 File#: Canon 20D digital camera frame 0555
An abandoned village on the road between Ivankiv and Ovruch, Ukraine, contains little more than the shells of former houses, a school and a government building. Although outside the exclusion zone, the village was evacuated after the Chernobyl accident in 1986. Everything with any value has since been stripped from the buildings, including even windows and wiring. © Michael Forster Rothbart Photography www.mfrphoto.com ¥ 608-242-1131 64 Lansing St, Madison, WI 53714 info@mfrphoto.com Photo by: Michael Forster Rothbart Date: 4/2007 File#: Canon 20D digital camera frame 2882
Viktor and Lydia Gaidak sit in their apartment in Desnyanskiy district at the outskirts of Kyiv. Viktor worked for 24 years at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, including 9 years after the 1986 catastrophe. In 2004 he had surgery for colon cancer. "When I was sick with cancer," says Gaidak, a retired engineer and liquidator, "we sold our car to pay for the surgery. We sold our TV, we sold our refrigerator, jewelry, everything we could. Now my wife Lydia has cancer and there's nothing left to sell." Many of the former residents of the Chernobyl exclusion zone were relocated here. More than twenty years later, nearly half of the 46,000 residents of the city of Pripyat still live in Desnyanskiy raion, where they struggle with health problems, unemployment, overflowing apartments and little government support. © Michael Forster Rothbart Photography www.mfrphoto.com ¥ 608-242-1131 64 Lansing St, Madison, WI 53714 info@mfrphoto.com Photo by: Michael Forster Rothbart Date: 4/2007 File#: Canon 20D digital camera frame 4597
Leonid Budkovsky delivered military mail to the Chernobyl zone for nearly 5 years after the 1986 accident. "In Chernobyl, no one knew how serious it was. We wore no special clothes," he told me. He began to have health problems in 1992 and by 1996 he was confined to a wheelchair. "I am 55 years old and no one needs me," he said. "I can still hold a spoon but I need help to go the bathroom and I have to wear Pampers." © Michael Forster Rothbart Photography www.mfrphoto.com ¥ 608-242-1131 64 Lansing St, Madison, WI 53714 info@mfrphoto.com Photo by: Michael Forster Rothbart Date: 5/2007 File#: Canon 20D digital camera frame 5877
Leonid Budkovsky with his grandson Slava. "In Chernobyl, no one knew how serious it was. We wore no special clothes," he told me. He began to have health problems in 1992 and by 1996 he was confined to a wheelchair. "I am 55 years old and no one needs me," he said. "I can still hold a spoon but I need help to go the bathroom and I have to wear Pampers." © Michael Forster Rothbart Photography www.mfrphoto.com ¥ 608-242-1131 64 Lansing St, Madison, WI 53714 info@mfrphoto.com Photo by: Michael Forster Rothbart Date: 5/2007 File#: Canon 20D digital camera frame 5855
Boats used in the clean-up after the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986 were too radioactive to continue using. Now they are rusting away in the former town of Chernobyl harbor. © Michael Forster Rothbart Photography www.mfrphoto.com ¥ 608-242-1131 64 Lansing St, Madison, WI 53714 info@mfrphoto.com Photo by: Michael Forster Rothbart Date: 4/2007 File#: Canon 20D digital camera frame 5115
All photos on this blog are (c) mfrphoto.com
