I was lucky enough to be part of a strange group of gentlemen who were on the other side of the world from their families for Christmas. So, we put together a plan that I still don’t believe today. What if we were to spend our Christmas in Chernobyl? That’s (almost) exactly what we did. On Christmas day, at the ghastly time of 2am, we suited up as Santa Claus in London and boarded a flight to Kiev. Within a few hours we found ourselves with a collection of “other” passport holders, waiting for a visa to enter Ukraine. With Santa suits on, we smiled for the camera as they issued visas and waved us through passport control.
A short ride later we found ourselves at our accommodation, ready for a nap and a meal. What was left of Christmas we spent exploring the city, seeing the sights and meeting as many friendly faces as possible. It is strange — I was awfully apprehensive about wearing the Santa suit at first, but the longer I wore it, the more people we met, and (it seemed) the better time we had.
We woke to an alarm and hurriedly pulled on our regular clothes while shaking off the night before. As we scoffed down breakfast, our tour guide honked impatiently outside. He explained that we would be watching a documentary as we travelled the 90 minutes from Kiev to Chernobyl.
Below is the film and a photo essay from deep inside the radioactive zone. We spent a full day exploring Chernobyl before boarding an overnight train to Odessa. This series has since been published in several newspapers and online publications — the coverage is on the press page.
The film
The photo essay
More essays like this on the photography page — or see Nazaré next.