Ce livre est une rétrospective de vingt ans d’images réalisée à Tchernobyl.Les images captivantes des neufs visites de Tchernobyl, que le photographe de National Geographic Gerd Ludwig a fait en vingt ans, nous dévoilent les histoires tragiques des victimes de cette catastrophe, de la zone d’exclusion et de la ville abandonnée de Pripyat. Ludwig s’est aventuré plus loin dans les entrailles de la bête que n’importe quel photographe occidental, documentant à plusieurs reprises le réacteur n°4 détruit, qui disparaîtra bientôt sous un nouveau confinement pour au moins cent ans. À côté du site du plus grand désastre nucléaire à ce jour, la ville abandonnée de Pripyat pourrait partager une destinée similaire alors que les autorités décident actuellement ce qu’il faut en faire. Ce livre constitue un important corpus documentaire au vu du désastre nucléaire de Fukushima, 25 ans plus tard. « En tant que photographes engagés, dit Ludwig, nous rendons souvent compte des tragédies humaines face aux désastres, et prenons nos appareils dans des zones inconnues non sans savoir que nos explorations ne vont pas sans risques personnels. Nous agissons ainsi par engagement pour d’importantes histoires racontées au nom de victimes qui resteraient autrement sans voix. »
THE LONG SHADOW OF CHERNOBYL
Gerd LUDWIG
Lammerhuber Edition
2014

Gerd Ludwig’s 20-year retrospective photo book, The Long Shadow of Chernobyl, published by Edition Lammerhuber, is released on the occasion of the exhibition at the Natural History Museum Vienna. National Geographic photographer Gerd Ludwig visited Chernobyl nine times in the last 20 years. And he ventured farther than almost any other photographer into the ‘belly of the beast’ in an effort to document the worst nuclear disaster in history. The resulting book, with its powerful and disturbing images, is a reminder as Chernobyl disappears – literally. A second encasement, called the New Safe Confinement, will soon make the well-known image of the reactor that was destroyed by an explosion on 26 April 1986 disappear forever under a high-tech dome. But, says Gerd Ludwig, first and foremost it is a book to remember the people – those who lost their lives, and those who continue to suffer this tragedy. “I am driven by the duty to act in the name of silent victims, to give them a voice in my pictures. During my stay in Chernobyl I have met many desperate people who were prepared to make their suffering public – their only motive the hope to prevent a repeat of tragedies like that of Chernobyl.“ The book, published by Edition Lammerhuber, includes an essay by Mikhail Gorbachev, the last head of state of the Soviet Union. Accompanying Gerd Ludwig’s emotional visual narrative, he reflects on the significance of the events at Chernobyl in the light of the political developments that would lead to the peaceful end of the Cold War.« As engaged photographers,” says Ludwig, “we often report about human tragedies in the face of disaster, and take our cameras to uncharted areas with the understanding that our explorations are not without personal risk. We do this out of a deep commitment to important stories told on behalf of otherwise voiceless victims. »