The trauma in the images after Chernobyl

Abstract

This paper proposes a reflection on contemporary documentary photography related to the trauma after the 1986 nuclear accident in Chernobyl, Ukraine. We intend to investigate how the traces of trauma are inscribed in the images. We will take as empirical corpus some images of the French photographer Guillaume Herbaut, published in the book Tchernobylsty, made in Kiev and in the abandoned city of Prypiat, a few years after the accident.