Fukushima: nature stronger than anything
No, the photos you will find below are not from a series on the living dead or the end of the world. These post-apocalyptic visions are actually taken from a series of photos taken by Arkadiusz Podniesinski, a professional photographer who had exceptional permission to visit the Fukushima nuclear exclusion zone.
Fukushima, the “Japanese Chernobyl”
A little flashback: Fukushima Daiichi, the “Japanese Chernobyl”. On March 11, 2011, a magnitude 9 earthquake devastated Japan, the ground collapsed under the feet of the inhabitants of this region and a tsunami destroyed the Fukushima nuclear power plant. 160 people were evacuated to flee the fallout from this ecological disaster.
In order to protect people from radioactive fallout, an area of 20 km around the power plant is declared an “exclusion zone” and no one can enter it without special authorization.
Arkadiusz Podniesinski, witness of the Apocalypse
Arkadiusz Podniesinski, Polish photographer, was able to obtain this privilege. He was therefore able to survey this area of Japan where no one has been able to visit since the disaster, and the images he brings back are both chilling and imbued with a form of nostalgic poetry.
The general impression is to observe a city where the population has evaporated. From video games rooms, to the karting circuit, through the offices where the inhabitants worked, everything has been left as is. One of the photos even shows a table in a house where the meal is on the table, waiting only for the locals.
But the photos that circulate the most are those of cars, abandoned on the roads and around which nature has taken over all the space, interweaving the bodywork in a kind of jungle. As if to remind us that when Man is no longer there, Nature will always exist… At least, we hope so…
