Exhibit opening in Slavutych, June 2, 2009

Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
06.02.09

Inside Chernobyl: life goes on
Photography Exhibition

If you worked at Chernobyl, would you stay there?

A new photography exhibition reveals the inside of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant today, focusing on the everyday lives of nine people who still work there. Created by an American photographer and Fulbright Scholar, this exhibition honors all those who work inside the Chernobyl plant, and the city of Slavutych where they live.

Highlights of this unusual exhibit are:
• Two 7-meter-long circular panoramas, showing Control Room 1 and the entire plant, giving visitors the impression of standing inside the site.
• Never-before seen photographs from inside the 4th Block “Object Shelter.”
• Life stories told by the people who work at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

The “Inside Chernobyl: life goes on” photography exhibit will be displayed for one month, June 5th to July 3rd, 2009, in the Slavutych museum, which is located at 7 Druzhby Narodiv Street in Slavutych.

The exhibit will open June 5th, 2009 at 7 p.m..

Invited speakers include:
• Director of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Igor Gramotkin
• Assistant director of the Chernobyl Shelter Implementation Plan John Baynard
• Slavutych mayor Volodymyr Udovychenko
• Director of rehabilitation centre for Chornobyl accident victims Viktor Odynytsya
• Photographer Michael Forster Rothbart

The five families profiled were chosen to represent a diverse cross-section of their community. Through large-scale photographs and texts based on personal interviews, viewers will learn about the workers’ jobs and lives.

The exhibit was created by American photojournalist Michael Forster Rothbart, in cooperation with residents of Slavutych. Forster Rothbart is a U.S. Fulbright Scholar in Ukraine. He has been photographing the lives of villagers near Chernobyl since 2007.

This exhibition was made possible through generous support from:
Chernobyl Shelter Implementation Plan Project Management Unit
Fulbright Program in Ukraine
United States Embassy in Ukraine

For more information and media accreditation, please contact:
Natasha Gryvnyak,
Exhibit public relations manager
+38-050-381-3750
nataliegryvnyak (at) yahoo.com
Photographs are available for media use at:
http://mfrphoto.blogspot.com/2009/04/downloads.html
Michael Forster Rothbart can be reached at info (at) mfrphoto.com

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