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FACES OF CHERNOBYL photos by kerstin braun "The strangest thing," says German photographer Kerstin Braun, "was walking around and smelling chlorine. We couldn't tell what it as. Then we saw the pool attendant." This wouldn't seem so strange if Braun hadn't been in the Ukr ne. More specifically, this wouldn't seem so strange if she hadn't been Pripjat, a community near Chernobyl declared 'evacuated" by the go Fifty-thousand residents were ordered to leave Pripjat after C ernobyl's Number Four reactor blew up eleven years ago and spewed ne hundred million curies of radionuclides throughout northern and ce tral Europe. An estimated 180 tons of uranium fuel still remains in the :::::::==='ir I:iBle anCf, ven tHoug a t enty-fo r-story sarcopHag s as 1:l1l11t t co tain further contamination, the site continually leaks radioactive mate lilal. Pripjat is now totally evacuated,. save for the pool attendant and th e who come once a week for a swim. "They covered the stairs in thick lastic foil," observed Braun, "so the radioactive concrete doesn't stick to their feet." People still live within the thirty kilometer forbidden zone s\j\. rrounding Pfipjat despite the general evacuation. Vi llages like Gnenj �ouse those who either refused to leave or returned after fa iling to fin' ell means to support themselves elsewhere. "It's their homeland," says Braun, "contaminated, but still their homeland, and life goes on nonetn less." They are peasant farmers who unfortunately receive their high est doses of radiation when they eat what they've grown. Otherwise, al seems normal, albeit eerie. There are few physical reminders (such as utant animals or vegetation) of the meltdown and the full effects of de elop'ing cancers and gene mutations will not be known for another few �ears. " verybody is more than pleased to help you out," she notes wry taste or : Once inside the forbidden zone, she tried to capture �hat she calls mell danger but knows that somewhere, indeed everyw ere, contami f Braun photographed the people who live where no one offici lIy can by s 1y, "to get at �ing past guards in a car driven by a Ukrainian official. currencies. " . re feeling" of being where one can't see, hear, feel, .-Michael Cervieri