[Pripyat, Ukraine, 2011] In Pripyat, visitors get to wander through the debris-strewn corridors and empty classrooms of a school. Hundreds of discarded gas masks litter the floor of the canteen. One tourist brought his own gas mask – not to protect himself from the radiation but simply for photographs and “laughs.” / [Pripiat, Ukraine, 2011] A Pripiat, les visiteurs se promènent dans des corridors jonchés de débris et dans des classes vides d’une école. La cantine regroupe des centaines de masques à gaz laissés à la traîne. Un touriste a acheté son propre masque à gaz – non pas pour se protéger du rayonnement mais pour poser devant les photographes et «s’amuser». © Gerd Ludwig / National Geographic Creative / National Geographic Magazine
[Pripyat, Ukraine, 2011] 25 years after the catastrophe, the amusement park in Pripyat has become an attraction for tourists who have started flocking to the zone in droves. / [Pripiat, Ukraine, 2011] 25 ans plus tard, le parc d'amusement est devenu une attraction pour les touristes qui visitent la zone en foules. © Gerd Ludwig / National Geographic Creative / National Geographic Magazinen
[CNPP, Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, Ukraine, 2011] During a tour of the Exclusion Zone, tourists check themselves for contamination at the entrance gates to the cafeteria for the workers of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Pripyat. © Gerd Ludwig / National Geographic Creative / National Geographic Magazinen
[Pripyat, Ukraine, 2011] Chairs, children's toys and gas masks offer a surrealist still life in an abandoned kindergarten classroom. After the accident, all useful items were taken; now tourism is leaving its own mark. Less and less do buildings bear witness to the hasty departure of their former residents; instead, there are signs of the visitors' need to simplify the message. Most noticeably, dolls like this one, carefully arranged next to a gas mask, have become the standard motif. / [Pripiat, Ukraine, 2011] Des chaises, des jouets et des masques à gaz comme nature morte surréaliste dans une pièce d'un jardin d'enfants. En raison des nombreux pillages après l'accident, les immeubles content de moins en moins de la vie avant la catastrophe. Une poupée abandonnée couchée à côté d'un masque à gaz devient le motif standard de prédilection. © Gerd Ludwig / National Geographic Creative / National Geographic Magazinen
[CNPP, Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, Ukraine, 2013] During a one-day visit to the Exclusion Zone, tourists only have a few minutes to snap photographs of themselves in front of the sarcophagus that encases the failed reactor # 4. Its western wall, leaky and unsound because it was hastily erected after the accident, has recently been stabilized. u201cThis is as close as you can get, hurry up,u201d announces the tour guide. Radiation is still so high that he asks visitors to stay on the paved paths u201cas radiation is substantially higher on the grass.u201d / [CNPP, Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, Ukraine, 2011] Durant une visite d'un jour à la zone d'exclusion, les touristes n'ont que quelques minutes pour faire des photos d'euxmêmes devant le sarcophage qui protège la nature du réacteur # 4. La paroi ouest, fi ssurée et instable, car rapidement installée après l'accident, a été stabilisée récemment. "Ne vous approchez pas davantage, dépêchez-vous", annonce le guide. Le rayonnement est encore si élevé qu'il demande aux visiteurs de rester sur les chemins cimentés "car le rayonnement est sensiblement plus élevé sur le sol en herbe." © Gerd Ludwig / National Geographic Creative / National Geographic Magazinen
[Pripyat, Ukraine, 2013] Finnish sightseers pose in bumper cars in an amusement park that was being readied for the annual May Day celebrations, days before the reactor blew up on April 26, 1986. © Gerd Ludwig / National Geographic Creative / National Geographic Magazinen
[Kopachi, Ukraine, 2013] Japanese tourists, some from the Fukushima district, photograph and film their Geiger counters while walking through the woods in Kopachi. © Gerd Ludwig / National Geographic Creative / National Geographic Magazinen
[Kopachi, Ukraine, 2013] Tourist guides have many ways to enhance the experience of visiting the Exclusion Zone and make it memorable. Vasilina Bas, 22, generally attaches a cosmetic contact lens depicting a radiation sign to one of her eyes, while wearing a Chernobyl cap, which is on sale in several shops in Chernobyl. [Kopachi, Ukraine, 2013] Pour rendre inoubliable la visite dans la zone d'exclusion, tous les moyens sont bons pour les guides. Vasilina Bas, 22, aime bien les lentilles cosmétiques, qui métamorphosent ses yeux brillants en symbole de rayonnement. Assortie à la lentille, elle porte une casquette Tchernobyl que l'on peut acheter dans quelques boutiques. © Gerd Ludwig / National Geographic Creative / National Geographic Magazinen
[Pripyat, Ukraine, 2013] In the 1970s, the town of Pripyat, less than 3 km away from the reactor, was constructed for the plant's personnel. The desolate place is now open to tourists, some of whom pose abandoned dolls in unsettling scenes.© Gerd Ludwig / National Geographic Creative / National Geographic Magazinen
[Pripyat, Ukraine, 2013] In the 1970s, the town of Pripyat, less than 3 km away from the reactor, was constructed for the plant's personnel. The desolate place is now open to tourists, some of whom pose abandoned dolls in unsettling scenes.© Gerd Ludwig / National Geographic Creative / National Geographic Magazinen
[Pripyat, Ukraine, 2013] Visitors stealthily and subtly alter the landscape. A battered doll keeps company with Vladimir Lenin in the Zolotoy Kluchik (Golden Key) Kindergarten. © Gerd Ludwig / National Geographic Creative / National Geographic Magazinen
[Pripyat, Ukraine, 2014] With so many rearranged scenesu2014many of the same themes repeatedu2014the uncritical observer may believe these sights to be an authentic representation of the disaster's aftermath. © Gerd Ludwig / National Geographic Creative / National Geographic Magazinen
![[Pripyat, Ukraine, 2011] In Pripyat, visitors get to wander through the debris-strewn corridors and empty classrooms of a school. Hundreds of discarded gas masks litter the floor of the canteen. One tourist brought his own gas mask – not to protect himself from the radiation but simply for photographs and “laughs.” / [Pripiat, Ukraine, 2011] A Pripiat, les visiteurs se promènent dans des corridors jonchés de débris et dans des classes vides d’une école. La cantine regroupe des centaines de masques à gaz laissés à la traîne. Un touriste a acheté son propre masque à gaz – non pas pour se protéger du rayonnement mais pour poser devant les photographes et «s’amuser». © Gerd Ludwig / National Geographic Creative / National Geographic Magazine](/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/CHERNO_110319_17517.11-x540q80.jpg)
![[Pripyat, Ukraine, 2011] 25 years after the catastrophe, the amusement park in Pripyat has become an attraction for tourists who have started flocking to the zone in droves. / [Pripiat, Ukraine, 2011] 25 ans plus tard, le parc d'amusement est devenu une attraction pour les touristes qui visitent la zone en foules. © Gerd Ludwig / National Geographic Creative / National Geographic Magazinen](/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/CHERNO_110319_175451-x540q80.jpg)
![[CNPP, Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, Ukraine, 2011] During a tour of the Exclusion Zone, tourists check themselves for contamination at the entrance gates to the cafeteria for the workers of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Pripyat. © Gerd Ludwig / National Geographic Creative / National Geographic Magazinen](/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/CHERNO_110319_17625.11-x540q80.jpg)
![[Pripyat, Ukraine, 2011] Chairs, children's toys and gas masks offer a surrealist still life in an abandoned kindergarten classroom. After the accident, all useful items were taken; now tourism is leaving its own mark. Less and less do buildings bear witness to the hasty departure of their former residents; instead, there are signs of the visitors' need to simplify the message. Most noticeably, dolls like this one, carefully arranged next to a gas mask, have become the standard motif. / [Pripiat, Ukraine, 2011] Des chaises, des jouets et des masques à gaz comme nature morte surréaliste dans une pièce d'un jardin d'enfants. En raison des nombreux pillages après l'accident, les immeubles content de moins en moins de la vie avant la catastrophe. Une poupée abandonnée couchée à côté d'un masque à gaz devient le motif standard de prédilection. © Gerd Ludwig / National Geographic Creative / National Geographic Magazinen](/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/CHERNO_110321_18659.11-x540q80.jpg)
![[CNPP, Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, Ukraine, 2013] During a one-day visit to the Exclusion Zone, tourists only have a few minutes to snap photographs of themselves in front of the sarcophagus that encases the failed reactor # 4. Its western wall, leaky and unsound because it was hastily erected after the accident, has recently been stabilized. u201cThis is as close as you can get, hurry up,u201d announces the tour guide. Radiation is still so high that he asks visitors to stay on the paved paths u201cas radiation is substantially higher on the grass.u201d / [CNPP, Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, Ukraine, 2011] Durant une visite d'un jour à la zone d'exclusion, les touristes n'ont que quelques minutes pour faire des photos d'euxmêmes devant le sarcophage qui protège la nature du réacteur # 4. La paroi ouest, fi ssurée et instable, car rapidement installée après l'accident, a été stabilisée récemment. --Ne vous approchez pas davantage, dépêchez-vous--, annonce le guide. Le rayonnement est encore si élevé qu'il demande aux visiteurs de rester sur les chemins cimentés --car le rayonnement est sensiblement plus élevé sur le sol en herbe.-- © Gerd Ludwig / National Geographic Creative / National Geographic Magazinen](/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/CHERNO_130914_23543.11-x540q80.jpg)
![[Pripyat, Ukraine, 2013] Finnish sightseers pose in bumper cars in an amusement park that was being readied for the annual May Day celebrations, days before the reactor blew up on April 26, 1986. © Gerd Ludwig / National Geographic Creative / National Geographic Magazinen](/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/CHERNO_130915_240261-x540q80.jpg)
![[Kopachi, Ukraine, 2013] Japanese tourists, some from the Fukushima district, photograph and film their Geiger counters while walking through the woods in Kopachi. © Gerd Ludwig / National Geographic Creative / National Geographic Magazinen](/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/CHERNO_130916_24480.11-x540q80.jpg)
![[Kopachi, Ukraine, 2013] Tourist guides have many ways to enhance the experience of visiting the Exclusion Zone and make it memorable. Vasilina Bas, 22, generally attaches a cosmetic contact lens depicting a radiation sign to one of her eyes, while wearing a Chernobyl cap, which is on sale in several shops in Chernobyl. [Kopachi, Ukraine, 2013] Pour rendre inoubliable la visite dans la zone d'exclusion, tous les moyens sont bons pour les guides. Vasilina Bas, 22, aime bien les lentilles cosmétiques, qui métamorphosent ses yeux brillants en symbole de rayonnement. Assortie à la lentille, elle porte une casquette Tchernobyl que l'on peut acheter dans quelques boutiques. © Gerd Ludwig / National Geographic Creative / National Geographic Magazinen](/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/CHERNO_130920_26212-1-P_V41-x540q80.jpg)
![[Pripyat, Ukraine, 2013] In the 1970s, the town of Pripyat, less than 3 km away from the reactor, was constructed for the plant's personnel. The desolate place is now open to tourists, some of whom pose abandoned dolls in unsettling scenes.© Gerd Ludwig / National Geographic Creative / National Geographic Magazinen](/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/CHERNO_130920_26421.11-x540q80.jpg)
![[Pripyat, Ukraine, 2013] In the 1970s, the town of Pripyat, less than 3 km away from the reactor, was constructed for the plant's personnel. The desolate place is now open to tourists, some of whom pose abandoned dolls in unsettling scenes.© Gerd Ludwig / National Geographic Creative / National Geographic Magazinen](/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/CHERNO_130921_26690.11-x540q80.jpg)
![[Pripyat, Ukraine, 2013] Visitors stealthily and subtly alter the landscape. A battered doll keeps company with Vladimir Lenin in the Zolotoy Kluchik (Golden Key) Kindergarten. © Gerd Ludwig / National Geographic Creative / National Geographic Magazinen](/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/CHERNO_130929_30306.1-cr1-x540q80.jpg)
![[Pripyat, Ukraine, 2014] With so many rearranged scenesu2014many of the same themes repeatedu2014the uncritical observer may believe these sights to be an authentic representation of the disaster's aftermath. © Gerd Ludwig / National Geographic Creative / National Geographic Magazinen](/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/CHERNO_140905_33392.11-x540q80.jpg)
