I am a 19 year old photographer. in march 2009 i went to the chernobyl region of Ukraine, to meet the people who are still effected by the radiation from the disaster, in specific the people who still live within the 'exclusion zone' or dead zone.



On the 26th of April 1986 an accident during a safety test in reactor four of the Chernobyl Power Station in Ukraine, led to huge amounts of radioactive particles being released. Wind blew them across international borders. Large parts of mainland Europe recorded huge increases in radiation levels. The area around the plant was evacuated and over 200,000 people were forced to leave their homes. A 30km zone was set up around the plant to stop people from living in these dangerously contaminated areas. Guards patrol the area and guard all entrances, to stop looting of contaminated materials and to check for forest fires that could further spread the contamination. A year after the accident 2500 people had returned to their homes within the area. There are various reasons they returned; either they couldn’t settle elsewhere, they were too poor to make a new life and the government did not give as much help as it had promised or simply that this was their home. These people are called 'Self Settlers'. Now, 22 years from the date of their return less than 200 of them remain alive. Most of them are old, but there are some younger people and even a few families. The guards have become accustomed to their presence, even though it is dangerous, and up until the year 2000 when the government accepted that these people were not going to leave, illegal to live there. Some of the guards even help bring products from the outside world. In 2009 I travelled to Ukraine to meet some of the people who are living in this so called 'Dead Zone' as well as some of the people who were evacuated from the zone 23 years ago.