A visual tour of Chernobyl: A disaster of biblical proportions, now compounded by war

Chernobyl is a cursed word, one that is repeated when one is talking about disasters of (almost) biblical proportions that have been burned into the memory of humanity. Photographer Pierpaolo Mittica has published a book (Chernobyl, GOST Books) that is a testament to the communities that either live in in or pass through the exclusion zone, an area of about 2,600 square kilometers (1,000 sq mi) around the site of the 1986 nuclear accident.

“Most of the radiation-affected children I photographed on my first visits are no longer alive. I would like this book to be a memory of that place and of those people,” says Mittica, speaking of a place he first visited in 2002 and to which he has returned on numerous occasions. The photographs in the book span six years and include images of people who returned to their villages after being forcibly evacuated following the disaster — some 4,000 are believed to be currently living in Chernobyl — operators of the reactors that have not yet been dismantled, military personnel patrolling the area, and scientists studying the impact of the disaster.

Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, much of the exclusion zone has been mined. No one is allowed to enter it. “Despite being one of the most contaminated places on Earth, the Chernobyl dead zone was full of life before the war,” Mittica concludes.

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