postcards from Pripyat

При́пять (Pripyat) was founded in 1970 to house workers for the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. It was officially proclaimed a city in 1979 but was abandoned in 1986 following the Chernobyl disaster. It was the ninth nuclear city (“атомоград” (atomograd) in Russian, literally “atom city”) in the Soviet Union at the time. Its population had been around 50,000 before the accident. ¹

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this is not a place for words. my thoughts are jumbled and scattered. feelings rise and swell in the top of my belly. this is a place frozen in time yet still moving. nature is making her way back into the cracks and peeling paint. i am not yet sure how i feel about the trip. “it was educational” seems like such a dumb and trivial thing to say. nothing about this trip was trivial. but the rest of the words won’t come. maybe later…

1. source: wikipedia
2. some photos, and words, from nic’s thoughtful perspective
3. if you want to know more about the chernobyl disaster, this documentary is a great place to start