In the wise words of legendary American photographer Ansel Adams, “There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs”.
One adventurous Malaysian photographer known as Keow Wee Loong has taken urbex, short for urban exploration, to the next level. He has done what other urbex photographers dare not do: sneak into Fukushima’s exclusion zone. And we have to admit, his photos are amaze-balls.
Just in case you didn’t know, urbex photography is the art of finding, exploring, and taking photos of old abandoned buildings, locations, and man-made structures.
Keow Wee Loong uploaded photos of his excursion on Facebook and as at the time of writing, his album, titled “Fukushima exclusion zone (No man’s land)”, has been shared over 18,600 times. In his caption, he wrote about how he trespassed into the exclusion zone, what he saw, and his thoughts about about using nuclear energy.
“Well this is the devastating effects of using nuclear energy. resident lives in Fukushima will never be the same again. The radiation leak at the red zone by the Fukushima Daiichi power plant is damaging the environment and marine life in the pacific ocean, say no to nuclear energy today,” he wrote. He also urged users to share the photos to create awareness of the danger in using nuclear energy.
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Unless if you’ve been living under a rock, you’d know about the nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Fukushima, Japan on 11th March 2011, which is the worst energy accident since the 1986 Chernobyl. The devastating event was triggered primarily by the tsunami following the Tohoku earthquake, also known as the Great East earthquake. Due to high radiation levels, the Japanese authorities implemented a 20 km exclusion zone around the power plant.
Some Facebook users commented that he wasn’t wearing proper radiation prevention gear because he can be seen wearing shorts, sandals, and a toxic gas mask in his photos.
While many Facebook users expressed concern for his health and praised him for his photography skills, others made fun of his urbex attempt. One user commented, “Hahaha. Ur future children will have genetic deformities. Congrats”, while another user wrote, “Thanks for the pictures buddy. Oh yeah and RIP in advance”.
For more pictures, you can view ’em at his Facebook album here.
Sources: Keow Wee Loong’s Facebook page, Fukushima on the globe.
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