NEW YORK, April 10 /PRNewswire/ -- A publishing achievement of lasting significance, Chernobyl Legacy bears witness to the present-day effects of an horrific nuclear accident of unprecedented magnitude. Searing images documenting the effects following the Chernobyl disaster are central to the mission of this startling book, the work of noted photojournalist Paul Fusco of Magnum Photos and Magdalena Caris, developed and realized by designer and publisher Giorgio Baravalle of de.MO. As the story of Chernobyl Legacy unfolds, the book's demand for awareness is amplified by the commentary of United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, actor Michael Douglas, Didier J. Cherpitel, Secretary General of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and United Nations delegates and leaders of international aid and relief organizations.
The explosion of a nuclear reactor in Ukraine 15 years ago released enough radiation to be detectable across the entire northern hemisphere, damaging and destroying human lives, homes and land and creating further generations of innocent victims and environmental refugees in territories of Belarus, The Ukraine and Russia. In the foreword to Chernobyl Legacy, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan calls for an increased awareness of the needs of the seven million victims alive today, and for the prevention of future disasters. Kofi Annan writes: ``Indeed, the legacy of Chernobyl will be with us, and with our descendants, for generations to come.'' Actor Michael Douglas, a United Nations Messenger for Peace appointed by Kofi Annan in 1998 whose father Kirk Douglas was born in Belarus remarks: ``Now that I have a family of my own, I will never be able to safely take my children to my father's hometown in Belarus to discover and celebrate that part of our heritage.''
Paul Fusco was introduced to the story of the present-day effects of Chernobyl in 1997 through Magnum Photos. Fusco soon determined to document the Chernobyl story to the fullest extent in a photo essay from the heart of the affected regions today. With funding from Michael Douglas, Fusco visited care centers, orphanages and hospitals. He then turned to Adi Roche, founder and director of the Ireland-based Children of Chernobyl Project, who provided many introductions necessary to the realization of the project. In the course of an editing session for a United Nations project on human rights, Fusco met Giorgio Baravalle of de.MO, with its up-to-the-minute commitment to difficult projects and a clear focus on book development and realization. Chernobyl Legacy is the product of their resulting collaboration.
``The next Chernobyl will be Chernobyl itself,'' writes Adi Roche, lamenting this devastating and largely unknown history. ``May this book light a candle 15 years after the Chernobyl disaster.'' Roche reminds the reader that the nuclear trail today is littered with stories of horror, and that more than 210 tons of uranium and plutonium are still buried inside the exploded reactor. ``No people have ever before been continuously exposed to long-lived, man-made radiation,'' she writes. While the ongoing threat to generations of the people of the Belarus region remains unacknowledged, and the people who are environmental refugees in their own lands go unnoticed and unaided, this book voices the statement that demands to be heard.
SOURCE: de.MO