Join local photographer Michael Haritan for a presentation of the 1986 catastrophe. Michael creates a timeline with personal photographs and video that provide haunting documentation of the disaster site, a psychiatric institution, and an orphanage - enlightening audiences with a rare view of not just a disastrous event but a place and the people who once worked and lived there. His trips to Ukraine in 2016 and 2018 provided research information about the nuclear accident – its causes, coverup and consequences, and the release of radioactive material still affecting the health of millions of people and the environment for many thousands of years. The presentation addresses the isolation and abandonment of Chernobyl with stories, interviews and images of Chernobyl survivors, victims and the babas still living there. As a result of the current Russo-Ukrainian war, Haritan becomes one of the last professional photographers to document and talk about Chernobyl as it succumbs to the ravages of nature and war.
Haritan has given over forty presentations to audiences across the USA, forming the basis for his new book (Amazon’s #1 New Release Best Sellers list) titled Chernobyl: Aftermath of the World’s Greatest Nuclear Disaster, a photography chronicle and reflective view of his two visits including untold stories and interviews from survivors of the Exclusion Zone. Copies of his book will be available for sale before and after the program.