Gates from the cloisters of All Souls college cast shadows on Radcliffe Square, Oxford. This might be a rare moment when the the quod: that great British architectural invention of exclusion, offers a pubic gesture. All souls is a graduate college and is made up of top finalists from the rest of the university from which two are chosen each year.
BUY PRINTS/LICENSE more Pripyat (Pripiat) 21 years after Chernobyl images here
When reactor number four at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded in 1986 the result was the worst nuclear accident in history. Large areas of Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia were severely contaminated, requiring the evacuation and resettlement of over 336,000 people.
Pripyat, 1km from the reactor, was designed as an exemplar of Soviet planning for the 50,000 people who worked at the power plant. A funfair, with bumper cars and Ferris wheel, was due to open two days after the reactor exploded.
These photographs, inspired by Robert Polidori’s earlier images of Chernobyl, were shot in 2007 over 5 hours, apparently the safe period of exposure. Although a Geiger counter was carried in case of localised high emissions, certain areas of vegetation which attract a higher concentration of radiation were avoided.
The physical devastation stems from looting and gradual building collapse, not from the explosion. Over the last ten years people have intruded regularly into the military exclusion zone, stealing everything from irradiated toilet seats to the marble cladding from hotel walls. Photographs of the town capture a memory of three traumas: the invisible radiation, the visible looting and the gradual collapse of a ghost town.
Hotel Polissia Terrace, Pripyat, Giclee Print, 50×33cm, Edition of 25 + 1 A/P
Pripyat, Chernobyl Exhibition
Pripyat: 21 Years After Chernobyl, photographs by Quintin Lake’ is on show at the Architectural Association Photo Library from Monday 12 May to Friday 6th June 2008, 10.00am to 6.00pm
Architectural Association Photo Library , 37 Bedford Square, London WC1B 3ES
Pripyat, Chernobyl Limited Edition Prints
BUY PRINTS/LICENSE more Pripyat (Pripiat) 21 years after Chernobyl images here
Photography © Quintin Lake, 2007
BUY PRINTS/LICENSE more Pripyat (Pripiat) 21 years after Chernobyl images here
Concert hall with water damaged soviet relief sculpture and piano, Pripyat, Chernobyl
The looted seating area in the Palace of Culture theatre, Pripyat
Palace of Culture Theatre prop room with paintings of Lenin and dignitaries, Pripyat (Pripiat), Chernobyl, Ukraine
BUY PRINTS/LICENSE more Pripyat (Pripiat) 21 years after Chernobyl images here
Photography © Quintin Lake, 2007
BUY PRINTS/LICENSE more Pripyat (Pripiat) 21 years after Chernobyl images here
Exercise books, Pripyat, Chernobyl Ghost town
Gas masks, Pripyat
Light shines across climbing bars and broken basketball hoop in a gymnasium. Pripyat, Chernobyl Excusion Zone
BUY PRINTS/LICENSE more Pripyat (Pripiat) 21 years after Chernobyl images here
Photography © Quintin Lake, 2007
BUY PRINTS/LICENSE more Pripyat (Pripiat) 21 years after Chernobyl images here
Hospital reception with doctor's appointment boards, Pripyat
Lenin and the pot plant in the hospital, Pripyat, Chernobyl
Hospital waiting room with discarded pot plant.
BUY PRINTS/LICENSE more Pripyat (Pripiat) 21 years after Chernobyl images here
Photography © Quintin Lake, 2007
Large format 4×5″ scanned transparency film can still be best when quality, resolution and optical distortion control are of the utmost importance. Large format transparency film is one of the last areas where film can offer more resolving power than digital at reasonable cost (as of Feb 2009). The resolving area is sixteen times that of 35mm.
A phase one P45/P65 digital back can be used with this camera if digital is a client requisite. The adjusting movements of this kind of camera allow keystone distortion and converging verticals to be corrected so the vertical sides of a building or room are vertical with the sides of the print for reproduction giving a cleaner naturalistic look particularly important when representing modern architecture.
Situations where a client may wish to consider commissioning a large format image might be a critical double page spread in a large book or magazine, a sharp print larger than 60x90cm or detailed crops that are required to be greatly enlarged. For historical buildings prior to heavy restoration or demolition a large format image provides the most accurate archival reproduction.
