Ivan i Meri (Russian)
30 Years After Chernobyl
Description:... The images are from the exclusion zone of Ukraine. Photographer Ricardo Arispe (b. Barquisimeto, 1980, lives and works in Caracas, Venezuela) was there in January 2016, in midwinter. The purpose was to produce the photobook "Ivan and Maria, 30 years after", written in Russian and originally published to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the nuclear accident at Chernobyl. Each photo shows what was left of the city, its buildings, schools, a statue of Lenin, even a clock that stoped at 1:23, the time of the accident. Everything is covered in snow as a memory that once there was life where only abandoned debris has remained for three decades. "Chernobyl is a world heritage of disaster, the historical moment and the place where it took place are important elements for the construction of its iconography which has left behind what meant and means 30 years later for the domestic life of thousands of people. "Jhon and Mary: 30 years after Chernobyl" searches human experience through ruins and its geography, beyond the explosion impact. Living in such a landscape, setting up a home in the middle of somewhere that was a crucial point of the country, today drifting away in oblivion; not only as an urban place or industrial, but also a historical oblivion. As if letting nature consume its ruins would erase it from the human misfortune pages. This book travels through a journey that goes from religious to human and from pristine nature to still life. Itœs about human life fragility and the abilities to build up a home among ruins of our own civilization."--Marcel del Castillo in Postcard.
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