CHERNOBYL - Umbrage Books

CONTACT:
Amy Deneson
Umbrage Books
515 Canal Street #4
New York, NY 10013
(212)965-0197 ext. 2#
fax (212)965-0276
amy@umbragebooks.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CHERNOBYL
CONFESSIONS OF A REPORTER
Photographs by Igor Kostin
New York, New York—Marking the twentieth anniversary of history’s
greatest nuclear disaster, Chernobyl: Confessions of a Reporter is a timely
description of its horrific and long lasting consequences.
On April 26th, 1986, Reactor Number Four at the V. I. Lenin Nuclear Power Plant
near Chernobyl exploded, releasing 400 times more radioactive matter than the
bombing of Hiroshima. Igor Kostin, then a reporter for the Novosti Agency, took
the very first photograph of the accident and endured massive radiation overexposure to document the disaster for the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Over the next twenty years he continued to investigate its effects on the area's
inhabitants and their environment. This never-before-seen photographic collection
tells the incredible stories of liquidators, soldiers, scientists, workers and residents
throughout Belarus, Ukraine, Russia, Latvia, Germany, Sweden, and France that
have been socially, politically, and medically impacted by the catastrophe creating
a global perspective of the tragedy. With the twentieth anniversary, Chernobyl:
Confessions of a Reporter sparks debate over the health and sociological implications of current global energy policies.
Cover: October 1986, Tatsenki, an evacuated
village in the thirty-kilometer forbidden zone.
A “liquidator” from the chemical team, in
protective gear including a gas mask, exits an
abandoned house with a pram. Igor Kostin
can't remember what was inside. What's in
this baby carriage? His loot? His tools? His
sandwich? What a symbol!
BOOK SPECS
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Hardcover with jacket
7.5 x 10.5 inches
$35.00 USD
240 pages
150 color and b&w
photographs
· ISBN: 1-884167-57-8
· June 2006
IGOR KOSTIN, born in Moldava in 1936, is a Laureate of the most distinguished international prizes, including five World Press Photo awards.
A contributor to Time, Newsweek, Paris-Match, Liberation, and Stern, Kostin
lives and works in Kiev, 50 kilometers from Chernobyl.
UMBRAGE EDITIONS is a New York-based award-winning publisher and
packager of provocative visual books, multimedia projects, and traveling
exhibitions. Umbrage Editions creates content-rich products, bringing them
from their initial conception to development and final production. Umbrage
projects vary in subject matter from classic photojournalism to cutting-edge art,
from pop culture to global human rights. For more information see our website
www.umbragebooks.com
Next page, clockwise from top right: A soldier erects a barricade outside an evacuated village, 60 kilometers from the power plant (1989). A team of the plant's personnel
goes to work in an highly contaminated environment, to monitor and maintain the
remaining three nuclear reactors. Red poppies grow wild in the forbidden zone. Even their
color matches the signs that warn of the field’s contamination. A child shows the effects
of radiation. One of the “recalcitrant”—they lived without electricity, without shops, and
without medical help. Liquidators wearing chemical warfare protective gear, inappropriate for radiation, measure the radiation levels in a field for scientist to study the genetic
mutation of plants (Summer 1986).
IMAGE AVAILABILITY AND CREDITS
The cover plus two images are available without charge for press promotion of Chernobyl: Confessions of a Reporter. Mandatory credit line:
Photograph © 2004 Igor Kostin, from Chernobyl: Confessions of a Reporter
(Umbrage, 2006). If you are interested in running more than two images or
to obtain high-resolution images for reproduction, please contact Umbrage
Editions T: (212) 965-0197 x2# F: (212) 965-0276, amy@umbragebooks.com.
Information about each photograph is available upon request.