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Local photographer tours Chernobyl

6 min read
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Photo by Brook Ward

Abandoned bumper cars at a site in the area of the Chernobyl nuclear plant

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Photo by Brook Ward

Vegetation has overtaken the streets in the area around the Chernobyl nuclear site

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Photo by Brook Ward

An abandoned hospital nursery near Chernobyl

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Photo by Brook Ward

Stained glass remains intact at this site near Chernobyl.

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Photo by Brook Ward

A view of a long-vacant high-rise building near Chernobyl

Photographer Brook Ward became fascinated with Urbex (urban exploration) photography about eight years ago, after he spotted images of abandoned and neglected places online.

Since then, Ward’s passion for telling a story through snapshots of decaying and ruined structures has taken him to four continents and about 15 countries.

So when Ward, president of Washington Hospital and executive vice president and chief operating officer of Washington Health System, was offered an opportunity by a fellow Urbex photographer to travel to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster, he was immediately drawn to the idea of going there.

Ward spent four days last fall exploring the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant and the nearby abandoned city of Pripyat, Ukraine, where thousands of buildings remain essentially preserved in time.

From Oct. 16 to 19, Ward and his son, Blair, 28, lugging heavy camera gear and provisions, hiked the equivalent of 60 miles through crumbling and peeling churches, schools, a hospital, factories, nuclear reactors and museums.

The post-apocalyptic mood and urban ruins intrigued Ward: rusting boats anchored in the River Pripyat; an amusement park Ferris wheel surrounded by encroaching forest; empty cribs in a hospital nursery; the New Safe Confinement (NSC), a lead-lined metal structure larger than Wembley Stadium that encompasses the ill-fated nuclear reactor No. 4.

“I like being able to find beauty in things that most people would find ugly, or drive right past and not even consider looking at,” said Ward. “There’s also something exciting about seeing something that most people won’t see or get a chance to explore. For example, we had free rein of nuclear Reactor 5, and at one point we were 700 feet above ground with a view of that structure, which was built to encapsulate Reactor 4, and all of the buildings amid the trees. It wasn’t eerie as much as it was peaceful,” said Ward.

On April 26, 1986, a routine test on Reactor 4 at the Chernobyl nuclear plant ended in disaster when the reactor exploded, releasing at least 100 times more radioactive material into the air than the amount released by the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

At least 31 people died in the initial blast and in the days immediately after the accident, but the death toll and health problems from long-term radiation exposure among firefighters, soldiers, engineers and workers who fought to contain the explosion, and people who live near the site, have been harder to estimate.

About 50,000 residents of Pripyat, then a part of the former Soviet Union, and an estimated 150,000 people from other villages and towns were evacuated, and most never returned after a 30-square-mile radius was deemed uninhabitable.

But a group of about 300 “Samosely,” or self-settlers, moved back to their villages inside the Exclusion Zone. Nearly 90 are left, and Ward visited the homes of two women, called “Babushkas,” who live without power and running water.

“One of them was 86. She made us lunch and gave us moonshine and talked about their way of life, what it’s like to live there. In exchange, you leave a tip,” said Ward. “That’s essentially how they survive and make money. It was a memorable experience.”

Ward said he felt isolated in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone in a way that he hadn’t in other places he has photographed, including South Africa, Iceland, Peru and Detroit, Mich., considered the mecca for Urbex photographers.

“When you go to Detroit or Gary, Ind., or Pittsburgh, there are a lot of abandoned buildings, but they’re in and among other buildings that are being used every day. You’re not in an area devoid of people,” said Ward. “When you go to Chernobyl, there are hundreds and thousands of buildings that are completely empty. Everything’s abandoned, and has been since 1986.”

And he was struck by the revival of wildlife and plants in the area, and the way nature has overtaken the city.

Ward recalled a bus ride along a narrow blacktop path where tree branches scraped along the sides of the bus. Only when the bus stopped did Ward realize the path was, at one time, a four-lane highway.

“When we got out, there were probably 20 buildings within three or four blocks, but you can’t see any of them because Mother Nature has taken over,” he said. “It’s like going through a forest. All of the sidewalks are overgrown, and you have plant life growing inside the buildings and on rooftops.”

In 2011, the Ukrainian government opened up the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone to tourism, and today, tens of thousands of tourists visit the site every year.

About 2,000 people still work at the power plant every day, monitoring radiation levels and completing other tasks.

Ward and the other two dozen photographers who accompanied him on the trip stayed in Slavutych, a small Ukrainian town about 45 minutes north of Pripyat, and rode the train to the Chernobyl plant with those workers. They all were required to pass through two armed checkpoints, where they underwent radiation checks.

The atmospheric radiation levels in Chernobyl are believed to be safe for tourists. In fact, Ward said, the amount of radiation a person is exposed to spending a day in the Exclusion Zone is the equivalent of the amount a person receives aboard an airplane flight from New York to Los Angeles.

The most likely spots for radioactive particles, however, are in the soil, so visitors are told not to place anything, including food and water, on the ground. Geiger counters are available to buy, and visitors are advised which buildings and areas are off-limits.

“We were in the hospital and we got to explore everywhere except for the basement because when the accident happened, that’s where they brought the firemen and that’s where their clothes and fire gear are, and it’s still extremely radioactive,” said Ward.

Ward, whose father and grandfather were professional photographers, also photographs landscapes, architecture and sports. He shot about 15,000 photos using his camera and a drone over the four-day span. Ward edits photos nightly and estimates it will take him years to process the backlog of pictures because he develops them using a technique called HDR photography. It takes him about 15 to 20 minutes to edit a photo.

His bucket list of sites to visit includes Philadelphia, upstate New York, the Great Wall of China, and Petra, an archaeological site in Jordan.

Ward wants his Urbex photographs to be thought-provoking.

“I’m hoping (viewers) will see the beauty in something they would otherwise ignore or ‘not see’ as they drive past it,” said Ward. “I’m trying to capture the beauty of the old architecture or just the building in its current condition.”

To view Ward’s photos, visit his website at www.brook-ward.com.

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