Chernobyl, 2009

Guillaume Herbaut

Gymnastics Gymnastique Herbaut Tchernobyl

Un mot sur l'oeuvre

( REF : GHER001)

30th November 2009, a gym in Pripyat, Ukraine.
Pripyat was evacuated in 1986, a few days after the Chernobyl disaster.
It is now a ghost town. The levels of radiation are so high that no-one can return.
You are only allowed to spend a few hours here.
This photograph is from a multimedia project called « The Zone », consisting of a blog, a web documentary (which won the RFI/France 24 award), a book and, of course, an exhibition. Guillaume Herbaut won the 2011 Niepce prize for this photographic series. He slept in the town of Chernobyl, which is slightly less contaminated, in order to produce it. He had to be accompanied by a guide when visiting Pripyat. In reality, the guide stayed in the car and Guillaume walked round the town alone.

Le témoignage de Guillaume Herbaut

The town has fascinated me since my first trip there in April 2001. Everything seemed to be frozen in time. It looked as if nothing had been touched since the evacuation. Moss and fungus were growing on some of the school desks.
When I went back in 2009, the town had been raided by looters. After the furniture they stole metal bars from the very foundations of the apartment buildings. Soon they will steal the bricks.
I had already been in this gym in 2001 and 2005. It is still deteriorating. I don’t know why but this place has always struck me, I think it reminds me of my secondary school gym.

Le choix de Jean-Denis

I immerse myself in the photo and let my thoughts wander. I can see children, both girls and boys, at work. I can practically hear the coach’s shouts, smell the sweat.
How many lives and dreams were broken on that day by the insane negligence of men. Maybe the new Olga Korbut was growing up there.
Then I come back to the present. The particles are in the air, you can feel them, almost see them. It’s as if things haven’t aged naturally, at least not how they would have anywhere else.
It is both terrifying and very beautiful. Horribly sad and so profound. It is a real nightmare, but also magnificent and this paradox tears you apart. It isn’t just a photo of a forgotten school gym. It is in Pripyat, a stone’s throw from Chernobyl…