Here's a massive, haunting collection of photos from Pripyat, Ukraine, the industrial city that housed Chernobyl's workforce. It's been an abandoned radioactive no-go zone for some 23 years now, gradually sinking into ruin, and it just gets more and more beautiful and melancholy.

Ukraine, Pripyat. 2009

Previously:

  • spazzm

    Terrible, yet fantastic.

  • Bax

    Pictures from Pripyat:

    http://chernobyl1986.tombossi.com/

  • Anonymous

    Lots of pictures from there and more information, kinda cool
    http://smithjan.com/blog/2011/02/02/chernobyl-25-years-revisited-wanderings-in-pripyat/

  • WaitWhat

    I died at that Ferris Wheel about ten times last night in Call of Duty 4. Eerie.

  • Evil Jim

    Whups! Looks like a double exposure on that first photo there.

  • Anonymous

    This guy also went here recently by the looks of it, has an interesting write up on the area too, also some cool photos: http://www.firesuite.com

  • Takuan

    how about a live action web game where you control armed telefactor robot zombies that stalk the ruins of Prypiat hunting actual kidnapped Call of Duty players?

  • dainel

    The buildings are in much better shape than I expect. From the BBC radio story on this a while back, I imagined trees growing through every roof. It also mentioned people living within the exclusion zone. Mostly older people who didn’t want to leave.

  • Sparky005

    Given the amount of destruction and trash/clothes/broken furniture strewn about, looks like it’s a popular squatter destination. Winters are tough enough in that part of the world, I think I’d be willing to put up with some radiation to have a roof over my head.

  • Anonymous

    I’d like to see the same pictures, but without the strange camera lens that makes everything look distorted and creepy.

  • kaiza

    wide angle (and film!) ftw!

  • moodygirl45

    This documentary on animals in the Chernobyl area was brilliant. We watched it on PBS, twice. It’s called: Chernobyl: Life in the Dead Zone
    It follows a cat and her life, a bear and a wolf over a year or so.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ud33w26qsWQ

  • Sork

    #6:
    Check link “Photoblogging Chernobyl – Boing Boing”

    I did not know that story was made up but frankly I don’t care because the photos were great.

  • wyldeyerys

    Wow…I just finished “The Road” by Cormac McCarthy…..anyone else feel like they needed to hide from cannibals while looking at these photos? Jaysus….

  • mortis
  • justinfwest

    A lot of these pictures look like their straight out of Call of Duty 4. The sheds and high dive swimming pool are exactly duplicated in the game.

  • gtron

    anyone notice the English text in the photo of drinking glasses about 1/2 way down the page? “The Japan Robot” ?!?! etc… wonder what that’s about.

    here’s a vid of Czech artist Monika Naceva in a decayed building in .cz – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqb5LjS2fhY

  • Anonymous

    hey… one of my friends was there last year and he told me that it was totally awesome, he even made a site about chernobyl, so if you want just try http://www.chernobylwel.com

  • Anonymous

    Eerie, thought-provoking, and touching, yes.

    Beautiful, not so much.

    I don’t know why, but the scoop of buttons took my breath away. Such a tiny symbol of life stopped in its tracks.

  • rdhuff

    These pictures are good, but as someone who has spent time in Pripyat, let me assure you that they do not accurately capture the haunting feeling of a dead city.

  • zuzu
  • oohShiny

    Okay two things:

    first, @3 — I thought I was imagining things, but no. That’s definitely a pair of translucent legs. LOL.

    second — I thought it was bad to go into radioactive areas. Am I missing something? Like grade 12 physics? :(

  • cmd4201

    Anyone else a little creeped out by the torso-less legs on right? Ehhh….

  • Anonymous

    so what is the dude saying about the ghost pic?? Was it double exposed or what?????

  • Amsterdaam

    A HA! So the street art *is* real! Take THAT, Daniel!

    Amazing photos, I WILL make it there one day…

  • Modusoperandi

    Visit Pripyat! Do not be full with worry. Place is nice and has clear sky and butter of fly flutters with joy around flowers of perfectly normal size. Ground is not glowing! Pripyat is place for wonderous vacation.

  • Anonymous

    @12, OOSHINY

    A little bit of radiation won’t kill you. Most alpha get stopped by your clothes. Beta rays need more protection.

    It’s the dust that’s a problem. You inhale it(for eg.), then it irradiates you from inside.

    And there’s also hotspots, especially inside buildings. You wouldn’t even notice until an hour later when you get the first symptoms.

  • Anonymous

    Here are photographs from the exhibition “Pripyat: 21 Years after Chernobyl” held at the Architectural Association in London by Quintin Lake

    http://is.gd/7Dtx0

  • GuidoMescalito

    link appears to be down. any chance of a re-up?

  • IWood

    I’ve been there. The streets and structures are just as eerie as the photos suggest: no noise but the birds and the wind, with the occasional clicking of the counters reminding you of what happened there.

    My memory of the trip is somewhat colored by the firefight beneath the rusting Ferris wheel while we were waiting for the extraction chopper.

  • Anonymous

    Has STALKER taught us nothing?

  • vjinterkosmos

    Looks like a Bloodsucker stalking the right-hand corridor, and there I was thinking this would look like a nice place for a campfire, some vodka and guitar…

  • Smoozlet

    Indeed, link isn’t working, but after clicking around I found what I think is the source. http://deviant-man.gallery.ru/watch?ph=xpE-bd0mx#feature=topclick

    It’s in Russian, but navigation isn’t impossible to figure out.

    On topic, I never get tired of seeing photos like these. Chernobyl is what got me interested in photography, many years back.

  • JoshuaTerrell

    Lol, that picture looks almost like the map Vacant on COD4

  • GuidoMescalito

    cheers smoozlet.

    incredible photos…

  • sabik

    @oohShiny #12, I suspect it’s a combination of limiting your exposure (length of visit) and avoiding a few particular hazards. After all, even directly after the accident workers would go in to fix stuff – with proper protection and precautions, it’s not a problem. Also, after so many years, anything really hot would’ve decayed already, so it’s just the long-lived stuff you have to worry about – and that’s only a problem with longer exposure. As long as you don’t ingest or inhale it (or otherwise take it with you), it won’t be a big problem.

    You wouldn’t want to go there without knowing what you’re doing, but that applies to a lot of places.

  • thekevinmonster

    This reminds me of that lady who supposedly rode a sport bike through Pripyat and took pictures, then put it up on a website.

    Also: “50,000 people used to live here. Now it’s a ghost town.” We’ll get ‘em next time, marines.

    (woo references!)