Moscow exhibit

A wall of dials in Chernobyl's First Block control room once indicated the level of each fuel rod in the reactor core. Although the plant stopped producing electricity in 2000, nuclear fuel remains stored inside three reactor halls.

Some of my recent photographs from the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant are in a new exhibit, opening this week in Moscow.

The exhibit, ХОТИМ, ЧТОБЫ ПОМНИЛИ (Wanting Rememberance) includes documentary photos and video installations showing life in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone before and after the 1986 accident. The exhibit has work from 5 Ukrainian photographers and filmmakers, 3 Russians, and me. The show, organized by Pripyat.com, coincides with the annual memorial day for liquidators (Chernobyl veterans) on December 14.

Exhibit opening: December 2, 6 pm.

The show runs December 2 to 13 in the выставочном зале «Творчество» (Gallery Creativity), Ulitsa Taganskaya 31/22, between Rimskaya and Marxistskaya Metro stations. (Map here; directions here).

Other events include:
Daily - Screenings of films by Rollan Sergienko
Dec 6, 2 pm - Roundtable discussion by former residents of Pripyat.
Dec 12, 3 pm - Presentation: Status and Future of Chernobyl's "New Safe Confinement".
Dec 13, 12 pm - Presentation: Understanding Radiation A to Z.

Exhibit site: www.rememberit.ru

Download the press release (in Russian) here.

Wisconsin Trails

Today I got the December issue of Wisconsin Trails. They did a nice little article about my Chernobyl exhibit in Madison. I was afraid they would run the photo the size of a stamp, so I was happy to see it runs across a full page.

Revisiting Chernobyl
Madison photographer Michael Forster Rothbart spent a year in Chernobyl on a Fulbright Scholarship to photograph and interview Ukrainians who remain in villages near Chernobyl a generation after the 1986 nuclear power plant accident.

This Forster Rothbart photo (above) shows Leonid Budkovskiy with his grandson Slava. When the Chernobyl plant exploded, Budkovskiy was a mailman in Ivankiv. For four years, he was reassigned to deliver top-secret mail from Ivankiv to the military headquarters in Chernobyl. One after another, the drivers he worked with refused to drive to Chernobyl. He continued, however, out of a sense of duty. His legs slowly stopped working and by 1996 he was confined to a wheelchair. Currently, he spends most days sitting on his back stoop, overlooking the vegetable garden, and getting assistance from his wife and grandson.

"Most visitors think Chernobyl is a place of danger and despair, and so this is what they photograph. For me, however, Chernobyl tells a story about endurance and hope," says Forster Rothbart. "I created this exhibit because I want the world to know what I know: the people of Chernobyl are not victims, mutants and orphans. They are simply people living their lives, with their own joys and sorrows, hopes and fears. Like you. Like me."

Forster Rothbart's next exhibit, Inside Chernobyl, is currently showing in the Ukraine and will open in Washington, D.C. in April with additional showings planned for Milwaukee and Chicago. After Chernobyl can be seen online at afterchernobyl.com.

Hartwick College panorama

Hartwick College sits on a hilltop overlooking the Susquehanna river valley in upstate New York. This panorama was created by digitally compositing 6 consecutive vertical photographs. (Click on the photo to see it larger).

My wife Amy now works in Golisano Hall, the building with the white tower at right.

Infidelity

Last week I had another assignment from NPR's This American Life. To create an illustration for this week's episode: Infidelity — stories of cheating, cheaters and the cheated.

I immediately recalled a book of cartoons my parents had when I was growing up: Sam, the Ceiling Needs Painting, by Woody Gelman. The cover gives a good idea of the content:Great way to imply sex with virtually no bare skin. So I set out to find six feet willing to pose for a photo. (See the final shot with all six feet here.)

This week's photo contest:

Free 5 x 7 print of this photo to the first person who correctly identifies the brand of jeans worn in this photo. Send your guesses to: blog@mfrphoto.com

Deadline: Nov. 8, 2009.

---------
[UPDATE 11/9:]
The correct answer: the jeans were Wranglers.
After making my first contests too hard I guess I made this one too easy -- almost everyone who entered got it right.

The winners are:
1: Jim Gill of Madison, WI was the first to answer correctly. HOWEVER
2: Sara Lynn Platt of Florence, KY was the first one to answer correctly AND follow the submission rules.

Both will get photos.

red maple leaves

Red maple leaves shine through the ripples at the edge of Wilber Lake, Otsego County, New York, on a sunny fall day.

Sometimes it's nice to just get out and make some pretty pictures.

drugs for This American Life

Last week I shot another assignment for NPR's This American Life. They asked me to come up with an illustration for this week's episode — Someone Else’s Money: a look inside the health insurance industry. Aired this past weekend.

After pondering it for a few days, I was hit with a stroke of brilliance (or lunacy) one night. I got up at midnight to fashion this stretcher out of a dollar bill and q-tips.

Last week's photo contest got such great responses I'll try it again.

Free 5 x 7 print of this photo to the first person who can correctly identify the secret ingredient I used to attach the stretcher to the pill bottles. Send your guesses to: blog@mfrphoto.com

Atomic Lake

Lake Balapan was created when an underground nuclear test in Kazakhstan blew the top off of a mountain.

Sixty years ago, the Soviet Union began testing nuclear bombs on the steppe in northern Kazakhstan. In the Semipalatinsk Polygon, researchers detonated nearly 460 nuclear explosions above and below ground over a 40-year period, ending in 1989.

Today, October 19, 2009, marks the twentieth anniversary of Kazakhstan’s nuclear testing moratorium, the result of a rare Soviet grassroots environmental campaign. Kazakhstan once had the world’s fourth largest nuclear arsenal. It has since become the first country to become nuclear-free.

Lake Balapan, also known as Atomic Lake, was created when an underground nuclear test blew the top off of a mountain. The resulting crater filled with water and is one of the most radioactive sites within the 6,950-square-mile Polygon. Recently, local shepherds have watered their sheep at the lake, not believing scientific warnings about the dangers of doing so.

Nurlan Khamiev is the director of the Shorskoye Mine, one of two mines still operating within the contaminated Polygon.

See another Polygon photo here.

drowning for This American Life

I'm a photojournalist. I don't get into the studio that often. So it was a fun change of pace last week to shoot this photo for NPR's This American Life. I was asked to create photos to illustrate the theme of this week's show, More is Less: the rising costs of health care.

Wait, you say, isn't TAL a radio show? Yes, but nowadays even radio shows need good photos.

Free 5 x 7 print of this photo to the first person who can correctly identify either the doll or one of the pills used in this photo. Send your guesses to: blog@mfrphoto.com

homecoming in a new home

With all my years of experience as a staff photographer for the University of Wisconsin, I decided I should start seeking new clients at the many colleges and universities here in New York.

So last weekend I photographed Homecoming at Hartwick College, just across the valley from our new home.

The Hartwick College football team runs out on the field at the start of their homecoming game against Ithaca College.

Alumnae Judy Lindberg and Kathleen Carver-Cheney and many other alums covered the hillside above Wright stadium.

No matter how many times I photograph cheerleaders, I always get a kick out of them. It was a lovely day, even though Hartwick lost to Ithaca 24-20.

Capital Times article

The Cap Times today has a nice little article about my new Chernobyl exhibit.

Find it here.