Detecting Dark Tourism

Author(s): Olivia Broome

Type: Photograph

Department: Communications Division

Exhibit no: 15


No one got to ride this Ferris wheel before or after the Chernobyl disaster. The amusement park now exists for the morbid observations of tourists. Pripyat’s evacuated population has been replaced by groups seeking a darker tourism thrill 33 years later, hoping to learn lessons from the past.

Visitors can pay extra to detect the invisible radiation that still lingers inside the disaster zone. Instead of measuring your steps, or your heart rate, you’re counting the doses invading your body. “How much would you pay to calculate your own safety?”