FALLOUT

Robert Knoth

I went to the Oxo Gallery to see the photography exhibition, Fallout: The Human Cost of Nuclear Catastrophe by Dutch photographer Robert Knoth.

It presented good information about the accident and it’s aftermath. From my viewpoint the photographs depicted nothing new, many similar ones have been published by others reporting from Chernobyl e.g. Chernobyl Legacy by Paul Fusco (1999, Magnum Photos ).

It was more like a newspaper report than art photographs. Certainly black and white photographs are more suitable than colour to show this kind of disaster. However, the presentation was not very impressive: too many photos crowded in a small space. It's a bit tiring to see them particularly if there are many people in the viewing room! For showing such a disaster fewer pictures would leave a deeper message!

It would have been more interesting and effective to have reduced the number of photos displayed and bring them in context with today’s events ( i.e. Iran’s nuclear activities ) by some short, concise critical writings beside the exhibits to show the power of destruction in the hand of human beings for instance.

© Sheng-Kai Chou 2006