Robert Polidori Zones of Exclusion Pripyat and Chernobyl 2003 First Edition Signed

🚀 **Robert Polidori “Zones of Exclusion: Pripyat and Chernobyl” — Signed First Edition, Steidl 2003**
*Hand-signed by the photographer in 2005*

**THE BOOK**

Published by Steidl Verlag in 2003, this first edition documents the abandoned Chernobyl Exclusion Zone through the lens of Robert Polidori (b. 1951), a Canadian-American photographer known for his large-scale color images of architecture and urban environments. Polidori photographed the zone in May 2001 — 15 years after the April 26, 1986 nuclear catastrophe that permanently evacuated more than 116,000 people from the area surrounding the power plant. Text by Elizabeth Culbert.

**THE PHOTOGRAPHS**

The book opens with Polidori’s front cover image: a derelict classroom in Pripyat, its peeling green walls and Cyrillic chalkboard bearing the date April 28, 1986 — two days after the disaster. The interior spreads include the Chernobyl power plant complex and its cooling towers viewed through barbed-wire fencing; an active control room with operators in white protective clothing at their consoles; an abandoned command center with curved banks of decaying panels; a children’s dormitory filled with metal-frame beds and debris, sunlight streaming through windows onto lush greenery outside; and rows of Soviet-era apartment buildings being slowly reclaimed by overgrown vegetation. Polidori’s signature muted color palette and large-format presentation make each image feel like a window into a frozen moment in time.

**COVER AND DESIGN**

Hardcover in dust jacket. The cover features Polidori’s classroom photograph with the title in white sans-serif type and the Steidl publisher logo at the bottom left. The book measures approximately 14 x 12 inches — a large-format coffee table presentation befitting the scale of Polidori’s work.

**WHY IT MATTERS**

– First edition, published by Steidl Verlag, a respected publisher of photography and art books based in Goettingen, Germany
– Hand-signed by Robert Polidori in 2005 on the title page
– Polidori’s photographic archive is held by the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History at the University of Texas
– One of the definitive photographic records of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, shot during a rare permitted access in 2001
– ISBN: 978-3882439212

**FOR COLLECTORS**

A signed copy of this book captures a moment when the Exclusion Zone was still relatively untouched by the tourist traffic that would follow in later years. Polidori’s images have been cited in academic work on Chernobyl photography and exhibited internationally. This is a first edition with the photographer’s signature — a combination that makes it particularly desirable for collectors of photography books and Cold War history.

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**Condition:**
Zones of Exclusion – Pripyat and Chernobyl
Photographs by Robert Polidori
First edition, 2003
Signed by Mr. Polidori in 2005

Amazing “time capsule” now almost 20 years past.

**Shipping:**
Will ship promptly upon receipt of payment, carefully packaged in a box, fully
insured, signature required.

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HFB-SEO-v1: 2026-06-26

1 in stock