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Former resident of Pripyat made the emotional footage in the exclusion zone (PHOTOS)

Июнь 25, 2015     Автор: admin
Former resident of Pripyat made the emotional footage in the exclusion zone (PHOTOS)

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Aline Rudyа was only a year when her parents had to leave home. 

A survivor of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster has embarked on an emotional pilgrimage back to the place of her birth to photograph poignant scenes left abandoned when she was evacuated as a baby.

Alina Rudya was just one when her parents fled her hometown of Pripyat in Ukraine in the wake of the meltdown at the power plant, where her father worked, in 1986.

The 30-year-old, who now lives in Berlin, first returned in 2012 and is now looking to make another visit to complete her project to mark the 30th anniversary of the catastrophe.

The first part of the project, called Prypyat mon Amour, saw Rudya revisit places she and her parents had visited in the city, while taking self portraits in each location. 

She even found her family's old apartment before they were forced to evacuate. As well as being one of the main images in the series, Rudya decided to pose in the nude for the photograph.  

Rudya said: 'When I first went there, I was scared of what feelings might resurface. I definitely thought of the past and about my family, and especially my father, who died nine years ago.

'He left a picture of me and my mom hanging on the wall of our old apartment and when I found it there – already lying on the floor after all the years he was gone – I felt really sad and inspired at the same time.' 

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Poignant reminder: When Rudya visited her old apartment, she found this photograph of her and her mother on the floor after all these years

Reflection: Alina gazes out of the window of her family's apartment over the wasteland left behind when the town was abandoned 30 years ago

Eerie: Alina took this ghostly image of herself in an area outside her family's old home. The first part of the project, called Prypyat mon Amour, saw Rudya revisit places she and her parents had visited in the city, while taking self portraits in each location

Symbolic: Alina sits next to a tree growing through the floor of a hotel overlooking the abandoned town of Pripyat in Ukraine

Remembering the Apocalypse: Alina's collection will be published in a book in spring 2016 marking the 30th anniversary of the disaster