Throughout Pripyat there are a number of amazing murals and public art works. I had a short list of murals that I wanted to photograph during my trip. A couple afternoons during downtime we would visit the center of Pripyat and wander to some of the more popular buildings. Most of the one day tours only have time to visit the town center, yet during my trip I had several hours over a couple days completely alone to wander this area and contemplate the quiet loneliness of an abandoned city. Exploring the city can be a little disorienting, trees have taken over just about all of the streets, even main streets are now overrun as nature continues the inevitable march to turn Pripyat into a forest.
This particular wall of the post office is a great example of the subject matter seen throughout the city. The combination of technical achievement represented by the astronaut, and the modern life represented by the female figure was no doubt celebrated by the citizens of Pripyat as well as the artist. I think the addition of abandonment adds a new level of interpretation, what happened at Chernobyl should be a warning to future generations.
