Visiting Pripyat, Chernobyl
December 10th 2019 was my 40th Birthday. Around a year before the day I realised it wasn’t going to be a great day to have a 40th birthday, a Tuesday in December, wife at work all day, kids at school. So I decided I would do something interesting rather than just spend it on my todd. I’ve always been interested in the accident at The Chernobyl Power Plant in Ukraine. I started my professional life as a science teacher so with a natural interest in science – the whole fallout of the explosion of a nuclear reactor and the efforts needed to contain such an event held a lot of interest to me.
I’ve also always been fascinated by the idea of ghost towns, places in our world that are frozen in time. I’ve never been to Eastern Europe before and to visit a country that had a history of communism in the old Soviet Union was another factor that held a lot of interest for me. So I decided back then I would visit Pripyat for my 40th birthday and booked a private tour of the exclusion zone for myself and a friend.
Below is a selection of photographs telling the story of my trip to the Exclusion Zone.
Read More»Two Brides
There’s a lovely symmetry in this photo that made me pick it for my best of 2018 slideshow. Two beautiful brides with stunning white dresses that really leap out of the photograph against the stunning colour of the Ashes Country house in the background.
Read More»Emotional Groom
This moment really caught me by surprise. I wasn’t expecting the moment to hit Dan as it did – before the ceremony he seemed very much to be taking everything in his stride. Then as he turned around and saw Alicia it all hit him. I love the eye contact between their daughter Maddy and Alicia. This photo isn’t just about two people getting married, it’s the strong bond of a young family.
Read More»The Tree at Night
When you work at the same venue multiple times it gives you an opportunity to really experiment with the same locations to try and get new photographs using new angles. This photograph came from wandering around in the evening and trying to find a new angle to incorporate the fairy light tree.
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