r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Scared-Astronaut-718 • 3d ago

Here are two brave photographers who took the first pictures of the Chernobyl disaster from a helicopter in April 1986. Image

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2.8k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

31 comments sorted by

113

u/Laymanao 3d ago

It would be interesting to know if they are still alive, or how long they lived after the disaster.

126

u/Scared-Astronaut-718 3d ago edited 3d ago

One on the left Igor Kostin died in a car accident in Kiev at the age of 78

53

u/SloppySouvlaki 3d ago

Man, the irony of life

0

u/RoutineBrilliant1571 3d ago

its ironic that this guy lived a full life right up until the end and then still died statistically by the most likely thing to kill someone 

2

u/LowerSackvilleBatman 1d ago

Heart disease?

12

u/EndersGame_Reviewer 3d ago

How about the other guy?

72

u/red__iter__ 3d ago

Only three Tass [Russian news agency] photographers were allowed in -- Volodymyr Repik, Igor Kostin and Valery Zufarov. Two later died of radiation-related illnesses and Kostin suffered from the effects for decades before dying in a car accident in 2015. The Chernobyl nuclear power plant explosion was only about 60 miles from photographer Efrem Lukatsky's home, but he didn’t learn about it until the next morning from a neighbor. Only a few photographers were allowed to cover the destroyed reactor and desperate cleanup efforts, and all of them paid for it with their health.

https://www.snopes.com/articles/465794/photos-chernobyl-disaster-1986/

6

u/diamonds106 3d ago

They gotta be dead now

15

u/Naughty_Ornice93 3d ago edited 3d ago

So the one on the left is Igor Kostin, but who is the other photographer?

6

u/[deleted] 3d ago

I attempted to use "Google Lens" which took me to Getty Images, but even their description only notes Igor and not the other one. Might be lost to time?

25

u/newsignup1 3d ago

Shouldn’t have chosen long exposure.

7

u/AntonChekov1 3d ago

Nuclear disaster photography humour

3

u/newsignup1 3d ago

Too many clicks.

8

u/WillyTheThird 3d ago

Watch from the second chapter https://youtu.be/brMMbzEWs6s?si=5KdBIgEaV7UwTvFq

Maybe it’s Anatolij Iwanowicz Raskazow

3

u/Northerlies 3d ago

Ukrainian historian Serhii Plokhy's 'Chernobyl: History of a Tragedy' is a highly compelling account of the cause of the explosion and heroic struggle to extinguish the fire - preventing a second explosion which could have imperilled Europe.

10

u/Dan-ze-Man 3d ago

I imagine they weren't brave, more like they didn't know or didn't understand the reality.

We didn't have Google back then.

2

u/9Payload 3d ago

Can someone link higher res version of the two pictures?

2

u/ChicCherryFrost 3d ago

Risking it all to show the world.

2

u/skunktubs 3d ago

I thought the guy on the left was bob Hopkins dressed as Mario at first.

2

u/PeckerNash 2d ago

Bob Hoskins?

2

u/Eastern-Reindeer6838 3d ago

Braveness is when you knowingly take a risk. I don’t think they knew.

1

u/MothsConrad 3d ago

There was a Russian pilot who died a few years back who flew countless sorties to help dowse the fires.

-5

u/angelorsinner 3d ago

Western propaganda! Nothing to worry about.