Spent two days in Chernobyl - without permanent damage
Zentralplus, 31.07.2016 Text: Marco Benedetti, Pictures; Pit Buehler
Pit Bühler is one of the last adventurers. The freelance photographer from Zug takes his camera to places that fascinate him and puts people in the right light. One exception was his expedition to Chernobyl, where he photographed ruins. It is the 30th anniversary of the biggest nuclear power plant disaster ever.
Pit Bühler is known for his portraits. He has had many US actors in front of his lens: Jeremy Irons, Cate Blanchett, John Malkovich, to name but a few. He met them at the Zurich Film Festival or other locations. But he also takes portraits of athletes and artists. He also travels a lot and photographs special people; he has visited 90 countries around the world.
But who is the photographer? We wanted to focus on him and met him at Café Speck in Zug. In conversation, you quickly realize that he doesn't like to talk about himself and is rather shy. More so about his work. «I'd rather be behind the camera than in front of it,» he says.
He has traveled to over 90 countries around the world, but these days he is staying in Zug: Pit Bühler on the terrace of Café Speck, where we met him for coffee.
An expedition to Chernobyl was atypical for his work. On April 26, 1986, reactor 4 of the Ukrainian «Lenin power plant» exploded in full operation. Pit Bühler witnessed the meltdown as an adolescent. He was 14 years old and living in Baar when the reactor exploded and a cloud of radioactive dust swept over Europe. «I've read a lot about it since then and seen a lot of pictures, but I still didn't know what exactly happened and what the effects were,» says the photographer. The area directly around the reactor is still uninhabitable today. Bühler wanted to see it with his own eyes. «I had heard that it was possible to visit the closed zone.»
Pit Bühler was born in 1972 and grew up in Baar. He lives in Steinhausen with his wife and two children. In 2000, he completed a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and Finance at Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts. In 2009, he attended the master's course in photography at the Academy of Visual Arts in Leipzig. Bühler has been regularly realizing photo projects for national and international exhibitions for ten years. He specializes in portrait photography, photographing celebrities and non-celebrities. Many actors, athletes and artists can be found in his portfolio on his website. The photographer has visited over 90 countries in his career, always in search of the «faces of our time». Since 2014, he has exhibited every year at «photo» in Zurich, the largest exhibition of Swiss photography.
Spent two days in the restricted area
«I got in touch with the Ukrainian government, actually found someone who was responsible and who accompanied me to Chernobyl.» He did not want to take part in one of the excursions, which are also known as «black tourism». «I was allowed to move around freely and spent two days in the area with a government representative.» Was it scary? Bühler doesn't think so. «The landscape is very beautiful and is now a national park. I saw wild horses for the first time in my life.» There are also wolves in the area. Nature has reclaimed much of it in 30 years.
Pit Bühler spent the night in the village of Chernobyl. It is partly inhabited again and researchers from all over the world live there. The evacuated town near the reactor, Prypiat, is much more spooky. Life came to a standstill there on April 26, 1986. Bühler photographed empty residential buildings, schoolrooms, prisons, restaurants and an indoor swimming pool. Many buildings are in danger of collapsing or are already in ruins.
Radioactivity in the mountains too
Bühler was not afraid of radioactivity. He was equipped with a Geiger counter. «Near the reactor, where I was, the radiation is still high.» In the inhabited areas, the radiation is lower. Bühler: «There are residents who refused to move away back then. They are now 70 or 80 years old and still alive. If you live in the mountains, the radiation is the same or even higher, pilots are exposed to even more extreme radiation, my Ukrainian guide explained to me.»
«I don't know if we're ready to do without nuclear power plants yet.»
The Zug photographer Pit Bühler
The Zug photographer Pit Bühler
No political message
Is the Zug photographer against nuclear power? He takes a rather «pragmatic» view: «We need a lot of electricity. We are very dependent on electricity and I don't know if we are quite ready to manage without nuclear power plants,» says Bühler. In general, Bühler does not want to be instrumentalized and has no political message. His pictures speak. Without words.
The thousands of photos Bühler took in Chernobyl have never been published or exhibited. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the reactor disaster. We are now showing some of the photos exclusively (see picture gallery).
How did Bühler get into photography? It all started with his passion for unusual journeys. «For example, I traveled to the Amazon in Brazil, took a freight train from Dijubiti to Ethiopia or drove from Miami to San Francisco in a discarded police car.» One day, he started taking his camera with him. «Like a portrait painter with a brush, I took the camera with me and started photographing people.» Because people and their stories have always fascinated him.
Bühler does its thing
«My projects are always clearly defined,» he emphasizes. In addition to the subject, light plays a central role. Bühler's portraits radiate an almost uncanny intensity. He speaks of the «Rembrandt light» from old painting, which he has studied intensively; there is «sweet» and «evil» light.
When he visited tribal warriors in Ethiopia, for example, he used sunlight. «It's also a question of respect,» says the photographer. «I didn't want to flash the indigenous people, who have never seen a flash, half to death.» Bühler's website features an atmospheric making-of article about the creation of «African Vogue».
Traveling a lot in Russia
He is currently very interested in Russia. Bühler photographed war veterans in Moscow. But also Russian drag queens. In 2015, he portrayed the dancers of the Bolshoi Theater and recently visited Russian circuses. According to Bühler, Russia holds a special fascination for him. «Because they are currently seen as the bad guys, the Russians are very interested in showing how multifaceted life and culture in their country are.» And that proved true for Bühler. «I met some incredible people there.»
Are you an angel?
When Pit Bühler returns to Switzerland, he is delighted with the good life here. «In Bangladesh, a boy once asked me if he could touch me to see if I was real. He had heard that there was a paradise called Switzerland, and therefore I must be an angel,» says the photographer - you can tell that this experience has touched him. «Everything is very cultivated and structured in Zug. But I don't really feel the pulse of life.» He himself always finds Zug a little «surreal» when he comes back. «Everything is very cultivated and structured. But I don't really feel the pulse of life.»
He has taken a liking to the circus world
Bühler is currently fascinated by the circus world. At the end of July, he will be traveling to Minsk to visit a circus. In spring, he was invited to photograph the 40th anniversary of the Monte Carlo International Circus Festival. But he has also just taken photographs at Circus Knie. The well-traveled photographer wouldn't mind working more in Switzerland. Because there are interesting undiscovered people here too.
