Captivating images of National Geographic photographer Gerd Ludwig’s nine visits to Chernobyl in 20 years tell us tragic stories of the victims, the Exclusion Zone and the abandoned city of Pripyat. Ludwig ventured deeper into the belly of the beast than any Western photographer, repeatedly documenting the destroyed rector #4, which will disappear under a New Safe Confinement for at least 100 years. Bordering the site of the worst nuclear disaster to date, Pripyat might face a similar destiny. An essay by Mikhail Gorbachev, the last head of state of the Soviet Union, accompanies Gerd Ludwig’s emotional visual narrative.