The Chernobyl Disco Where They Drink and Fight to Forget

Guillaume Herbaut. Click on the image to see more of his work.I remember exactly where I was when I heard the news about the Chernobyl disaster on April 26, 1986. I was living in an apartment on Taylor Avenue in Winnipeg.  

I had just woken up after having worked the night shift at the radio station and turned on the TV to see if anything was going on.  Dan Rather popped up with the news of the meltdown. 

I've been fascinated with the Chernobyl story ever since.  The fate of those who stablized the meldown. The effect on the environment. The cancers and birth defects.  The people who refused to leave the forbidden zone.  The abandoned town of Pripyat.

I'm far from alone in my dark fascination with what happened.  Guillaume Herbaut is a photojournalist who spent some time in Ivankov, a city in an area that was contaminated.  One Saturday night, he took his camera to Antalys, a disco where the locals drink to forget.

Absurdly, all this has become something of a tourist attraction.  God help me but I might just do this one day.