Downtown

Exhibit: ‘In the Shadow of Chernobyl’

Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Reactor 4

If you’re attending this month’s Downtown Art Walk this coming Thursday evening, be sure to stop by Lot 44 Coffee on Spring Street, and check out British born (LA resident) photographer Graham Gilmore’s exclusive exhibit of photographs from the radioactive Chernobyl exclusion zone.

In April of 2008 (Almost 22 years to the day of the accident) Graham traveled to the heavily restricted disaster area with official papers from the Ukraine government granting him special access to the 30 km exclusion zone surrounding the burned out reactor in the Chernobyl region, approximately two hours north of the capital Kiev.

In the early hours of April 26, 1986, night workers in reactor number four of the V.I. Lenin Memorial Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station were performing tests postponed from the previous day shift. These tests were to determine if the plant could operate under a complete loss of electrical power on backup generators. However, at a critical moment during the process, poor manual operations — couple with a flawed reactor design — led to overheating of the nuclear shell. Sudden, excessive increase in temperature and pressure caused the 10,000 ton lid to blow clean off the reactor, destroying the roof and spewing tons of nuclear waste into the atmosphere and the surrounding area.

The effects were catastrophic. Atomic agencies classified the disaster at level 7, a complete nuclear meltdown one hundred times stronger than Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Pripyat amusement park

Pripyat, the nearest major city to be affected by the accident, sits just 3 km away from the reactor and is in the most dangerous 10 km inner section of the zone. A full thirty-six hours after the explosion, local authorities realized the magnitude of the disaster. Unable to cover up or manage such an emergency, they ordered an evacuation of Pripyat’s 50,000 residents.

Only four hours later, what was once a bustling town filling with residential towers and an amusement park became a deserted center of ruin. Evacuees were permitted to take one suitcase and their documents. Everything else had to stay behind.

To this day no one has returned to live here, and radiation exposure will remain off the charts for an estimated 700 to 25,000 years.

Here is the exhibit invite..

Please be our guest for the Lot 44 Coffee Gallery’s opening exhibition of Shadow of Chernobyl, featuring photography by Graham Gilmore on Thursday, January 8th from 6:00 – 9:00 p.m.

In the early hours of April 26th, 1986, reactor #4 of the V.I. Lenin Memorial Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station exploded spewing tons of fuel, radioactive graphite and nuclear waste into the surrounding area. The city of Pripyat and other small villages stood in Chernobyl’s radioactive shadow. Photographer Graham Gilmore presents a series of photographs taken within that shadow, now called the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone: a radioactive ghost town.

Pripyat School Hallway

In April 2008, British born Gilmore was allowed to enter the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone to photograph the growing decay surrounding the nuclear power station. As one of the only few to venture and see the zone, Gilmore has captured a haunting profile of landscapes and cityscapes of life that once was. Gilmore reminds us in this exhibition of the inherent destruction that is all too often easily brought on by human error. Gilmore, however, does not reprimand as his photographs are tempered by a compassionate eye that brings forth a gripping beauty of stark desolation. Very few in the United States have laid eyes upon these images: Images of dilapidated amusement park rides, withered schools, solitary village homes, and shored river boats all seem to capture the last seconds of an immediate evacuation of 50,000 Soviets fleeing Pripyat, never to return.

The images also illustrate Gilmore’s prowess to photograph such captivating images. As the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone will be toxically radiated for another 700 to 24,000 years, Gilmore had to photograph quickly and efficiently within a limited time frame and with equipment restraints to minimize radiation exposure. As Gilmore remarks, “I was a little worried and apprehensive about being exposed to radiation, but at the same time very excited. It was something I’ve wanted to do for a very long time. To actually go there and visit such a place is a life changing experience that will stay with me forever.”

The Lot 44 Coffee Gallery invite you to this exhibition to view a glimpse of the somber yet prescient destruction of a part of our world as seen through the eyes of Graham Gilmore. We welcome you!

Lui Sanchez
Curator

The exhibition runs from January 8th through February 22nd and a percentage of the proceeds go to  “The Friends of the Children of Chernobyl” charity in the UK. Lot 44 Coffee is located at 257 S.Spring Street,Suite 115, Los Angeles, CA, 90012.

You can view Graham’s website here – Firesuite.com

Tags: chernobyl, Chernobyl exclusion zone, Children of Chernobyl, exclusion, gilmore, graham, La artwalk, Lenin Memorial Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station, Lot 44 Coffee, Lui Sanchez, pripyat, radioactive, Ukraine, zone