Topic: A good read in the NYT (Chernobyl and photography)

[Jeff Warden]

"Tourism at the End of the World" is a good analysis of our desire to travel to places like this, and then make images of it.

There seemed to be a general implicit agreement that nobody would appear in anyone else’s shots, because of a mutual interest in the photographic representation of Pripyat as a maximally desolate place, an impression that would inevitably be compromised by the presence of other tourists taking photos in the backgrounds of your own.

The article does have some Covid-19 content so if you're trying to avoid that this might be an article to skip, but the Covid-19 content relates directly to the subject matter of the article and is brief. For me it was a half hour well spent.


https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/03/24/magazine/chernobyl-tourism.html?searchResultPosition=1

[zapsnaps]

Interesting.
Of course, my first thought reading this was, which camera would I take to visit such a place? I came up with 3 essentials. The Blad, as it is of similar age to Chernobyl. I persuaded myself that such a machine will encourage thoughtful composition and due justice to such a place. The Leica R8 with the 35-70 zoom (yeah, yeah - not an M with a prime. But I think a zoom at a place like this might be tactically advantageous). Both loaded with moody B&W for dark, threatening shadows. And a pocket digi for bourgeois, decadent colour. Everybody loves a radioactive bumper car in Velvia-like colour.

[zapsnaps]

By the way: anyone like the pictures accompanying the article, using the on-camera flash?

[hookstrapped]

By the way: anyone like the pictures accompanying the article, using the on-camera flash?

I like the look. It gives an 80s vibe to it, which seems appropriate, while lending a sense of separation of the tourists from where they are.

BTW, from the shadows in some pics, it seems the flash was off-camera to the left and up a bit. Maybe the author's friend could conclude deals on his phone while holding the flash above his head.