14th Annual Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest People
"I cannot believe I used to come here for work every day"

Lydia standing in the ruins of the Energetik Palace of Culture, ghost-town of Prypyat/Pripyat, Ukraine. From the series "Prypyat mon Amour" which follows people who, like myself, were evacuated from the now ghost-town of Prypyat/Pripyat, after the infamous nuclear accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power plant in 1986. My goal was not to show the disastrous aftermath, but the emotional nostalgia of people, who returned to their hometown, where they were happy once.

Photo Detail
Date Taken: 09.2016
Date Uploaded: 09.2016
Photo Location: Pripyat, Ukraine
Camera: NIKON D610
Copyright: © Alina Rudya