The exhibition “The Long Shadow of Chernobyl/Der lange Schatten von Tschernobyl” at the Horizonte Zingst Photo Festival was a resounding success with over two hundred in attendance on opening day alone. Located inside a dilapidated former military building, the exhibition became much more of an installation with over 50 photographs, video, magazine spreads, and extensive background information. Spanning nearly two decades of Gerd Ludwig’s coverage of the aftermath of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, the photographs explore the human and environmental impact of the disaster 25 years later. Nearly a third of the images in the exhibition came from his most recent trip to Chernobyl in March 2011, which was funded by sponsors and donors through a Kickstarter crowd-funding campaign. Signs displaying the names of the individuals and companies who helped make his most recent trip possible were posted as a ‘thank you’ to those who made his trip possible.

Thanks to the contributions of sponsors and hundreds of donors from around the world, my Kickstarter campaign, The Long Shadow of Chernobyl, was fully funded and I returned to the Chernobyl Zone in March. Shortly after my trip, an exhibit went up in London at the EBRD headquarters in London, including a couple of images from my recent trip. The BBC World News reported on the exhibit, broadcasting it worldwide. You can view the video here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-13125498

A larger exhibit of 56 photographs, about a third of them new, will be shown at the Horizonte Photo Festival in Zingst, Germany. The exhibit will be jointly opened by Jürgen Trittin, former Federal Minister of the Environment, and current leader of the Green Party in Germany, who is acting as the patron for the show.

The exhibit will take place at a former East German military complex, opening on May 29th at 12:00 noon.

For more details about the exhibition: http://www.horizonte-zingst.de/ausstellungen/detail/event/tschernobyl.html

To view the Facebook Event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=222142621131182

In Digital Photo Pro Magazine’s June 2011 issue, writer David Willis features Gerd Ludwig’s experiences using the crowd-funding website, Kickstarter, in an article entitled, “Kickstarting your Project – Crowdsourcing as an option for photographers.

Click here to read online: http://www.digitalphotopro.com/business/kickstarting-your-project.html

Last week an exhibition of my Chernobyl photographs went on display in London. Unfortunately, due to the timing, only a few of my newest images could be included.

To commemorate the 25th anniversary of the accident, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) opened an exhibit at their London headquarters. The EBRD is in charge of collecting the finances for the Chernobyl cleanup and the construction of the New Safe Confinement, totaling $2.2 billion. At present, the Chernobyl Shelter Fund shows a gap of more than $800 million, the reason why the EBRD was eager to exhibit my photographs and confront an audience of ambassadors and bankers to the reality on the ground. Among the attendees was the Ukrainian Ambassador, Volodymyr Khandogiy.

The BBC aired a video about the exhibit just this morning: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-13125498

A list of the Kickstarter Donors and Sponsors was displayed alongside the photographs.

Dear Donors, Sponsors, and Friends,

Over the last couple of weeks, Brandon, my intern Tory, and I have been busy editing my new images from the Exclusion Zone. The three weeks I spent there with my cameras could not have been possible without your support, so first, let me extend my gratitude for your help getting me back into the field to continue my coverage of Chernobyl.

Today, the Exclusion Zone sits very much the same as it did six years ago during my last visit. The most obvious change is the Ukrainian government’s official opening of tourism into the Zone. Although largely unannounced, tourism has been going on for several years. However this year, the government has pushed to increase tourism as a way to bring in revenue. According to the Ukrainian Ministry of Emergencies, which oversees the Exclusion Zone, hopes are to attract close to one million visitors for guided tours in 2012, the year of the European Football Championships in Ukraine. The spectacle of tourists with cameras and Geiger counters unloading from tour buses adds a whole new surrealism to the landscape. A small food market even sells Chernobyl merchandise!

While Chernobyl is opening up for tourism, access for journalists has only been made more difficult. Bureaucratic barriers have increased, prices are inflated, and today visiting journalists are not allowed to leave the hotel without their guides, confining them to their primitive lodgings like prisoners.

After pushing hard I was able to gain access to the deepest parts of the failed reactor #4 once again. For years, desperate efforts were underway to shore up the roof of the shelter to prevent it from collapsing. This work has been completed. Today, dimly lit, empty tunnels lead to haunting rooms strewn with wires, pieces of shredded metal and other debris. Walls have collapsed, and the rubble is covered with deadly radioactive dust, all waiting to be dismantled.

There is an upsurge of construction for the New Safe Confinement – the structure that is being built off-site and will eventually slide over the reactor to seal in the radiation to allow the final dismantling of the still highly radioactive reactor. At one point, the completion date was set as early as 2008, but has since been pushed back repeatedly. Actual construction for the NSC started only last September, and the completion date is now set for 2015. Officials on the ground however believe full competition is not likely until 2020, but say so only off the record.

As the project progresses, I will send out news announcements through the project website, Kickstarter, and Facebook.

Thank you again for all of your support.

Best, Gerd

Please check the Photos to view some new images, I’ll be updating the slideshow as the editing process moves along.