Post-Soviet ruin photos on show in London

Photographs of the decaying world of Soviet-era closed cities and military bases have gone on show at London’s Flowers Gallery. For his project Dust, Israeli photographer Nadav Kander visited the borderlands of Russia and Kazakhstan capturing the remains of secret facilities used for testing atomic weapons, capturing what he calls “empty landscapes of invisible dangers” — a reference to the toxic legacy of the cynical and irresponsible experiments with radioactivity that were conducted at these sites.

The exhibition, which opened at the east London gallery on 10 September, is accompanied by a book featuring Kander’s photographs and an essay by novelist Will Self. A parallel showing of pictures is being held at Les Recontres d’Arles photography festival as part of an exhibition of Prix Pictet laureates. The show at Flowers Gallery runs until 11 October.

Read more:

Beauty and the east: allure and exploitation in post-Soviet ruin photography

Half life: documenting the struggle for existence in the atomic cities of the former USSR

The mighty have fallen: elegiac elegance amongst the rubble of Soviet military power

All pictures copyright Nadav Kander and courtesy of Flowers Galleries