Last year I decided to do a photo documentary dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl catastrophe. Needless to say, I had a lot of reasons for this project. My family lived in the contaminated area for 8 years before we immigrated to the United States and we still have friends who are to this day suffering from the effects of long-term radiation exposure. I wanted to bring more attention to this problem. I wanted to help. And, not to seem selfish, I wanted to get noticed as a photojournalist.
I failed on pretty much all accounts…
When I first began to prepare for this documentary things went really well. I made arrangements with a Ukrainian company called Solo East Travel to take me to Chernobyl. I met two wonderful women, Svetlana Ostrovskaya of “Humanity for Chernobyl” and Particia O’Brien of “Children of Chernobyl”, who are truly an inspiration in their dedication to the cause. I read a number of books and articles and looked at photoessays done by other photographers.
However, I wanted more than to simply photograph the wasteland that is now Chernobyl. I wanted to get the human side of the story, to speak to people who participated in the cleanup, to go to hospitals and photograph children affected by radiation exposure.
That’s where things went wrong. I spent hours and hundreds of dollars on international phone calls trying to obtain permission to interview and photograph hospital patients and staff. I spoke to everyone I could think off, including the secretary to the Minister of the Foreign Affairs of Belarus. I got nowhere. Both Belarus and Ukraine refused to accredit me as an independent journalist; apparently the only way to get accreditation and needed permits is to be affiliated with a major news agency.
Desperate, I began calling private organizations, but it seemed like most of them were too afraid of publicity, especially the ones in Belarus. Even those organizations that agreed to help me backed out at the last moment. The only organization that granted me an interview was the UNESCO-sponsored Borodianka Center for Help to Chernobyl Victims.
I also realized that I was a bad journalist – I could not detach myself from the people involved, I could not hide behind my camera. I can honestly admit that there were moments when I cried; in some cases I could not bring myself to ask people if they would allow me to photograph them – I could see that their lives were bad enough without me sticking a lens in their faces.
Even though I did not achieve what I set out to do I came back with a better perspective on the problem. I also managed to do at least one good deed during my trip and that makes it worthwhile.
If you want to find out more about the Chernobyl catastrophe, check out the official Chernobyl website at http://www.chernobyl.info.
If you can afford it, please donate to one of the following organizations:
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