<h1><span class="mw-headline" id="Disclaimer_of_best_intentions">Disclaimer of best intentions</span></h1>
<p>Traveling to the Chernobyl exclusion zone 'as a tourist' is often frowned upon and has recently received a lot of bad rep because of attention or thrill seeking individuals. In response to this, some tour guides have jumped into this gap and started spicing up the stories of what happened during the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster" class="extiw" title="en:Chernobyl disaster">Chernobyl disaster</a>, resulting in misinformation and half-truths being spread.
Between the fatal incident with reactor number 4 and me visiting the sites, more than 32 years have passed. During this periode, a lot happened, including a cleanup of all highly contaminated materials which took over 3 years, the fall of the USSR just 5 years after the incident during which the exclusion zone was mostly unguarded and almost everything was plundered. Most of the props on photos (such as gas masks) have nothing to do with the accident. Most of is was just left behind because they weren't valuable to those who plundered and are now being staged by tourists who want an impressive photo.
</p><p>All photos (or other visual material) uploaded by me of my tour through the Chernobyl expulsion zone, were made with the intention to capture and document what this area looked like 32 years after human civilisation disappeared. None of the photo's were staged by me, all the items in my photos are either where they were left behind in 1986, or by whoever else decided to move them around afterwards. 
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If you have any questions regarding my photos from the exclusion zone, feel free to use the talk/discussion page or contact my in any way you see fit.
<a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:JoelvdLoo" title="User:JoelvdLoo">Joël van der Loo</a>
CC BY-SA 4.0
<span class="int-own-work" lang="en">Own work</span>