Journey into the Future – Stop #1

Chernobyl the buzzword is enough to bring to mind images of horror. The super meltdown at the power plant near the Ukrainian city of Pripyat has burned itself deep into people's memories. After the explosion in reactor block 4, a huge radioactive cloud terrified all of Europe.

Twenty-five years after the April 26, 1986 catastrophe, the Chernobyl region is still uninhabitable. The Moscow photographer Sergey Shestakov went in search of clues in the exclusion zone, where life has died out. In Prypiat he shot pictures that make people deeply saddened. Deserted streets, abandoned houses and objects left behind carelessly show a dead city in which life is no longer stirring. Emotional and intimate, Shestakov looks back.

The title, Journey to the Future, indicates that the terror of the past is both a reminder for the present and a warning of a possible future. The mental path to Fukushima is not far from Chernobyl. In his recordings, the Muscovite has succeeded in giving his message a lasting effect and initiating a thought process. In his photographs, he does not stop at remembering a human tragedy of unimaginable proportions, but shows what can happen when people overestimate themselves and technology gets out of control. The irrational, apocalyptic images of a sad reality appeal to everyone's responsibility.