My Fukushima and Chernobyl light painting photographic project is appearing in France’s Polka Magazine this month.
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My Fukushima and Chernobyl light painting photographic project is appearing in France’s Polka Magazine this month.
Forests make decontamination efforts difficult, as they not only slow progress, but they cannot simply be washed like buildings, or scooped up and replaced like soil. Forests accumulate and soak up radioactivity, and when they burn, they spread contamination over the landscape near and far. Fire is naturally a concern for Alexander Govorovskiy, legal councillor for the Zlynka forestry service, but it is the more human impacts that he is most interested in.
Natalya Rueva has lived in the village of Staryy Vyshkov for 25 years. She works in a small grocery store there, and has raised her family there, and done so despite there being a plan to relocate the people in the village since a resettlement law was passed in 1991.
Tatyana Dorokhova has been principal of the Starye Bobovichi school for eight years now. She was out of the area at University when the Chernobyl meltdown happened 30 years ago, but returned when the cleanup was being undertaken.
This video uses a new light painting method to explore the impacts of lingering radioactivity in Fukushima and Chernobyl-impacted Russia, on communities.
Inspired by the Immaterials project (https://vimeo.com/20412632) the process uses a custom-made LED stick, connected to a geiger counter, which shows radiation levels in the environment in real time. Coupled with a long camera exposure, we created ribbons of light around homes, businesses, and community areas in Japan and Russia.
After almost two years of development, my photo project using LED lights, a Geiger counter, and long exposure photography to map radiation levels in Fukushima and Chernobyl-impacted Russia is out.