Growth And Decay Hardcover

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David McMillan

Since 1994 Scottish-born Canadian photographer David McMillan (born 1945) has journeyed 21 times to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. Inspired by his teenage memories of Nevil Shute's On the Beach (1957), a disturbing vision of the world following nuclear war, McMillan found in Pripyat the embodiment of an irradiated city still standing but void of human life. As one of the first artists to gain access to "The Zone," McMillan initially explored the evacuated areas with few constraints and in solitude, save for an occasional scientist monitoring the effects of radioactivity. Returning year after year enabled him to revisit the sites of earlier photographs--sometimes fortuitously, sometimes by design--bearing witness to the forces of nature as they reclaimed the abandoned communities. Above all, his commitment has been to probe the relentless dichotomy between growth and decay in The Zone.

9783958293977

English

Steidl Publishers

23 Apr 2019

256

McMillan, David David McMillan is a Scottish-born Canadian photographer who began his career as a painter, receiving an M.F.A. in painting from the University of Wisconsin in 1973. An interest in the tension between the natural and the built environment led him to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, where he has photographed regularly since 1994. McMillan has exhibited internationally, and his grant and awards include multiple Manitoba Arts Council Visual Arts "A" Grants, two Established Artist Grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Banff Centre's Barbara Spohr Award.

The photographs are stunning reminders of so many things from the failures of the 20th century to our morbid fascination with decay. All of which make this book a worthy addition to any coffee table collection.--Daily Beast