The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone
April 4 – 27, 1996
Ten years ago, the explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant released radiation into the atmosphere in amounts estimated by the World Health Organization to be 200 times greater than the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs combined. Shortly after the accident, a ten kilometer zone was established around the damaged reactor. When it became clear how widespread the contamination was, the zone was extended to thirty kilometers. More than 135,000 people had to be evacuated, and, in an area of rich farmland, millions of acres were left to lie fallow. The evacuation zone is still closely guarded, and although some former residents have returned to their villages, much of the zone is still uninhabitable.
I studied to be a painter but realized my sensibilities were more attuned to photography. I was initially intrigued by how the formal possibilities of the medium determined the way the world looked in a photograph. I began to travel, interested in how topographic variation offered new picture-making possibilities. I became increasingly interested in the dynamic between nature and culture which led me to photograph in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, a guarded area contaminated by the 1986 nuclear accident.
David McMillan was born in Scotland and educated the United States. He taught at the University of Manitoba School of Art, where he established the photography program. In 1994, he began photographing in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone and has visited the area 22 times over a period of 25 years. The work has been exhibited internationally and a comprehensive monograph, Growth and Decay, was published in early 2019 (Steidl).