Igor Kostin

(b.1936 in Georgia) has lived since the 1960s in Kiev. He took the first photo of the exploded reactor in Chernobyl on the night of 26 April 1986. Since then, Kostin has documented the medical, social, and political consequences of the catastrophe.

Articles

"The vodka was supposed to cleanse our thyroid glands"

Igor Kostin on his Chernobyl photos

Igor Kostin took the first photo of the exploded reactor in Chernobyl and later joined the “liquidators” clearing away contaminated debris. Later he documented the evacuation of people from the thirty kilometre zone, and over the next seventeen years photographed the visible and invisible consequences of the contamination. Here he talks about his life work.

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