About The Book
Chernobyl by photographer Pierpaolo Mittica is a document of the communities who inhabit and pass through the exclusion zone—an area covering approximately 2600 km2 around the site of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor disaster of 1986. Mittica first journeyed to Chernobyl in 2002, drawn like many to photograph the impact of the worst technological catastrophe of the modern era. He returned many times and rather than focusing on the ruins and relics, sought to tell the stories of those he encountered in this unique place.
Approximately four thousand people live in Chernobyl and Mittica’s photographs depict a selection of those who call the town home—the military and police personnel who control the zone, scientists studying the impact of the disaster, the operators of the reactors that are still not decommissioned and those charged with the dangerous work of recycling the tonnes contaminated metal or rusty ‘gold’ which lies abandoned. Publisher’s Info
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Pasha repairing an engine that is used to force ventilation in the radioactive scrap metal recycling facilities. Chernobyl exclusion zone, 2015 © Pierpaolo Mittica
Cranes in the abandoned commercial port, close to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Chernobyl exclusion zone, 2016 © Pierpaolo Mittica
About The Artist
Pierpaolo Mittica (b. 1971) lives and works in Italy. He graduated from the Masters Program studing conservation, technique and history of photography at CRAF in Italy 1990. His photographs have been exhibited internationally are held in collections including the Chernobyl National Museum, Ukraine; Fotografiska Museum, Sweden and J. Paul Getty Museum, USA.
He is co-author with Alessandro Tesei and Michele Marcolin of two documentary films: Living Toxic, Russia (Sydonia, 2014) and Behind the Urals (Mondo in Cammino, 2015) and he co-directed with Alessandro Tesei the documentary film The Zone, Road to Chernobyl (Subwaylab, 2018). Chernobyl is his eighth monograph.
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Specifics
Pierpaolo Mittica: Chernobyl published by Gost Books 2024 // 199 x 272 mm // 224pp, 126 images // Hardback, clothbound cover. Link.
