CHERNOBYL PROJECT

The "Chernobyl Project" is an endeavor to visually capture the unseen specter of radiation that permeates the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. Faced with the challenge of rendering visible the invisible, Miceli pondered the profound question of how one observes a place defined more by its absences than its presences.

This project marks a departure from traditional documentary photography, venturing instead into a unique form of radiographic imaging that allows gamma radiation—a lethal vestige of the nuclear disaster—to imprint itself directly onto film. Placed in the zone's most contaminated areas, these films silently narrate the intensity of radioactive exposure over months, offering a disturbing yet crucial insight into the enduring impact of human technological failure. The resulting images depict and bear witness to the land's invisible wounds, interrogating the limits of human perception and the potential of technology to both harm and reveal.

The project was developed in collaboration with the Radio-Protection Institute in Rio de Janeiro, the Medical Faculty of the University of Munich, and the Sakharov University in Minsk.