Nuclear Nightmares: Twenty Years Since Chernobyl by Knoth and de Jong

MINSK, BELARUS: Twin brothers Michael and Vladimir Iariga, 16 years old.
Michael, with hydrocephalus, is 5 minutes older than Vladimir, who is deaf. (Photo: Robert Knoth)

The Chernobyl disaster may seem like a distant memory to you and me, but more than twenty years later, the after effects of the nuclear disaster are still felt by many people.

In their book, Nuclear Nightmares: Twenty Years Since Chernobyl, photographer Robert Knoth and reporter Antoinette de Jong documented - with harrowing photos - the suffering of victims poisoned by radioactivity:

Chernobyl was just one of the devastating nuclear debacles that have taken place in the last 45 years in the former Soviet Union, including above-ground testing to which many people were exposed without proper safeguards. These photographs by Robert Knoth, from the regions of Mayak, Semipalatinsk, Chernobyl and Tomsk-7, are testimony to the continuing medical, economic and social consequences of the thriving nuclear industry in Eastern Europe. The people who are subjects to these photographs must cope with birth defects, cancer, and other debilitating health issues due to the permeating presence of radiation. They must also face the fear that the genetic damage that they have suffered may be passed down to their offspring.

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Previously on Neatorama: Chernobyl: 20 years later | Ghost Town: Chernoby Photoblog