"Half Life" ~ remnants of Chernobyl by Nadav Kander

Classroom, Secondary School

Shoes in Dust

Hospital Assembly Room

Room 206, Hotel Polyssia

View from Central Square Apt to Reactors 3 and 4

"Reactor No.4 at Chernobyl's Nuclear Power Station exploded in 1986 leaving the surrounding area uninhabitable for many hundreds of years. I visited Chernobyl to mark its 20th anniversary, photographing the deserted spaces in what was once a model Soviet City.

Home to more than 40,000 people, the apartments, schools and hospitals that were hastily left following the controversial evacuation are stark reminders of past lives, leaving a disturbing sense of quite. An uneasiness that I had never previously experienced." —Nadav Kander

You can view the rest of these chilling photographs by Kander on his webpage Nadav Kander

As a young person living in Northern Ireland at the time of this disaster, it was holds for me my most terrifying memories. I recall running to stay indoors, fearing to go out, to breathe. The news told us of "the clouds" that were to rain toxic & deadly water upon us. Cattle and sheep were slaughtered. Everyone felt helpless. A silent, invisbile death wrapped around us. Online this week Swedish photographer Vahid Cullsberg introduced me to these powerful works by Kander, taken for the twentieth anniversary of the event. I was moved to tears, as not only have I experienced the fear of this invisible radaioactive destructor but I have met the victims, children and adults, who have visited Northern Ireland from the region, to gain some respite and fresh air from their contaminated legacy.

Kander has recently published in the New York Times "Obama's People", 52 photographic portraits of the leading men and women in Obama's Government, shot on the eve of the presidential inaugeration. The venue is the Birmingham Museum and Art gallery and the event will run from 18th April 2009 - 30th August 2009

He was born in Israel in 1961, brought up in South Africa and today lives in London with his family.