!

" # $

The Photographer Who

X-Rayed Chernobyl
How to make the invisible visible.
BY W I N N I E L E E • D E C E M B E R 4, 2 0 1 9

Alice Miceli, Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, PTT-8 Sign,

Highly Contaminated Ground, Belarus, 2008
CO U RT E SY T H E A RT I ST A N D G A L E R I A N A R A RO E S L E R

W
hile living in Berlin in 2007, Brazilian
artist Alice Miceli took long train
rides—18 hours or more—to Belarus,
then another leg, by car or train, to Chernobyl. She
made this journey more than 20 times. With
permission to be in Chernobyl’s Exclusion Zone
before tours were available, she photographed the
site using a regular camera, but also documented
the area—and the legacy of the 1986 nuclear
disaster there—in a different, more extraordinary
way. Miceli placed radiographic film plates used for
chest X-rays—specifically sensitive to radiation—
wrapped in layers of industrial plastic on the
ground, on windows, on trees. She wanted to make
visual records of something invisible to the naked
eye, namely the area’s radioactive contamination,
particularly the isotope cesium 137. “It is
interesting that radiation has shape,” she says. “It
has physicality. It operates at a specific frequency
that can be recorded, if only we could place
ourselves in a position to see it. It became clear to
me that, in this case, it would be necessary to
create my own tools to make this happen.”

In This Story
D E ST I N AT I O N G U I D E
Ukraine

P L AC E
Abandoned City of
Pripyat

Miceli created a special pinhole camera and did

meticulous tests at the Institute of Radiological
Sciences in Rio de Janeiro, but she still didn’t
entirely know what to expect when she got into the
field. “In terms of the radiographic techniques that
I had been developing, I didn’t have any idea about
what kind of images I might be able to record once
actually outside the lab and in Chernobyl,
encountering not a controlled model but the full-
scale radiation,” she says.

Miceli (left) examines a film plate placed on the

ground. She also attached them directly to objects
(right). CO U RT E SY T H E A RT I ST

The resulting images, which are currently on

exhibit at Americas Society/Council of the
Americas in New York, are unexpected and don’t
follow any predictable patterns. Some glow with
ghostly lines and swirls, but many of them are
mottled darkness (with the dark areas indicating
radiation). The visual effect is striking, but its
emotional impact is greater. “Chernobyl as it is
exists in our planet today concerns all of us,” she
says.

The artist has continued to be fascinated with

natural and social landscapes that, like
Chernobyl’s, have been impacted by trauma. Her
other work has explored Security Prison 21 in
Cambodia and minefields in post-conflict
countries.

R E L AT E D
Life in Pripyat Before, And
the Morning After, the
Chernobyl Disaster
READ MORE %
%

Miceli discussed with Atlas Obscura her inspiration

and the experiments she conducted for the
Chernobyl Project. The exhibition is on view
through January 25, 2020.

An experiment in a highly contaminated field, held in

place by rocks. CO U RT E SY T H E A RT I ST

What inspired you to go to Chernobyl and

attempt to document its radioactivity?
I read a story in a magazine in which a scientist
mentions how quiet it is in the Exclusion Zone in
Chernobyl, and I realized that the zone could be a
powerful place to explore the idea of silence. I
looked at hundreds of photojournalistic images of
the site and I realized they were all incomplete
somehow; they were just photographs of ruins.
They are deceitful in the way they leave out the
central narrative of the story. They just show a
place in decay, but it could be any place in decay.
The photographs say nothing about the fact that
the landscape has been changed forever at the
atomic level. This interested me as a challenge and
a question—the conceptual challenge of using the
medium of photography to capture what cannot be
seen.

What was your first impression of

Chernobyl?
When I first went to Belarus, I was already working
on the technology for almost a year, but I had
never actually been in Chernobyl [in Ukraine].
Being there made me witness the humanitarian
crisis that the situation has caused in Belarus over
the years. Right after having returned to Rio, where
I was then based, I asked myself: How has this first
trip altered the project? The central issue is the
(in)visibility of radiation. Physical visibility,
considering that my images capture the invisible,
but also sociopolitical visibility, considering that
even though the reactor is across the border, in
Ukraine, contamination is at higher levels in
Belarus, a country that is even less socially visible
than its neighbor.

How did you decide where to place the

radiographic plates?
Once I got there, I began looking for the most
contaminated spots, because the emission was
strongest and the image was most likely to be
exposed more quickly, more clearly. I always carry
a light meter when I take photographs, so it felt
normal this time around to carry a dosimeter,
which measures the level of radiation embedded in
organic matter. I spent a lot of time walking
around the zone and mapping out areas with
signals strong enough to make an exposure, but
not so strong that it would be dangerous for me to
be there.

Miceli’s radiation dosimeter. CO U RT E SY T H E A RT I ST

Can you describe how your radiographs

were made?
Two technologies were developed. First, there is a
pinhole camera, adjusted to capture images only
from invisible gamma rays, on to radiographic film.
We built a steel box with a lead cover, to attenuate
radiation and protect the film. The actual camera
went inside the box, and was a much thicker lead
cube with a conical, miniscule pinhole. This
technique worked well in the extremely controlled
and miniature setting of a lab, but not so much in
full-scale contaminated nature, as in the
Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.

The second technique, the one we experimented

with in Chernobyl, was the development of
autoradiographs that use all sorts of different
contaminated matter within the Exclusion Zone as
their source. An autoradiograph, or autoradiogram,
is an image imprinted on to radiographic film
produced by the gamma rays from radioactive
matter. The film is placed next to or in direct
contact with contaminated matter, thus producing
life-size images of the invisible contamination.
That’s what we see in the show.

What was the most challenging aspect of

your project?
It turned out that each good image needed to be
exposed to radiation for quite an extended period
of time—at least two months. Some were there for
eight months. We marked the landscape and made
detailed notes to make sure we’d have a shot at
finding the experiments again, but many were lost.

What was the most surprising thing about

your experience there?
That being in Chernobyl was for me a very
peaceful, calming, and focused activity.

This interview was edited for length and clarity.

Alice Miceli, fragment of a field III - 9.120 µSv (07.05.09 -

21.07.09), backlight, radiographic negative. CO U RT E SY
T H E A RT I ST A N D G A L E R I A N A R A RO E S L E R

Alice Miceli, fragment of the trunk of a tree II - 7.356 µSv

(07.05.09 - 21.07.09), backlight, radiographic negative.
CO U RT E SY T H E A RT I ST A N D G A L E R I A N A R A RO E S L E R

Alice Miceli, fragment of a window I - 2.494 µSv (21.01.09

- 07.04.09), backlight, radiographic negative. CO U RT E SY
T H E A RT I ST A N D G A L E R I A N A R A RO E S L E R

Alice Miceli, fragment of a field II - 9.120 µSv (07.05.09 -

21.07.09), backlight, radiographic negative. CO U RT E SY
T H E A RT I ST A N D G A L E R I A N A R A RO E S L E R

Alice Miceli, fragment of a field V - 9.120 µSv (07.05.09 -

21.07.09), backlight, radiographic negative. CO U RT E SY
T H E A RT I ST A N D G A L E R I A N A R A RO E S L E R

Alice Miceli, fragment of a wooden wall IV - 2.956 µSv

(21.01.09 - 07.04.09), backlight, radiographic negative.
CO U RT E SY T H E A RT I ST A N D G A L E R I A N A R A RO E S L E R

Experimente na Loja
Fast Shop

Experimente Por 100 Dias do Seu

Jeito

Rio de Janeiro

WEBSITE DIRECTIONS

AT L A S O B S C U R A T R I P S

Photographing Chernobyl
in Winter
View This Trip

E N E RGY NUCLEAR D I S A ST E R S

P H OTO G R A P H Y V I S UA L

Keep Exploring

NUCLEAR A RT
The City the Photographers
Chernobyl Disaster Take on the
Left Behind, Then World's Walls,
and Now Borders, and
Archival images of Pripyat Barriers
before the accident offer a An exhibit documents the
stunning contrast to what obstacles we erect, and how
visitors will find today. we overcome them.
DA R M O N R I C H T E R WINNIE LEE

ABANDONED S OV I E T A RC H I T E C T U R E
Photographing the On Vacation in
Afterlives and Soviet-Era
Second Acts of Sanatoriums
America's Movie The treatments are no longer
Palaces mandatory, but they're still
available.
Matt Lambros is inspired by
abandoned theaters—and A N I K A B U RG E S S
their potential for revival.
WINNIE LEE

GET OUR EMAIL NEWSLETTER

enter your email SUBSCRIBE

F O L LOW U S

& ' ( ) * +

P L AC E S
,
FOODS
,
EXPERIENCES & TRIPS
,
CO M M U N I T Y
,
CO M PA N Y
,
Get the Atlas
Obscura book
S H O P N OW »

© 2019 Atlas Obscura. All rights reserved.

Questions or Feedback? Contact Us