Norilsk was founded as a Siberian Gulag in 1935, and, as you can see in these desolate photographs of the remote Russian city, located in the Arctic Circle, since then things have somehow gotten worse.
Photographer Elena Chernyshova’s “Days of Night – Nights of Day” photo series of this foreboding place, which is shrouded in 24-hour darkness 45 days out of the year, was recently shown at Grand Prix Fotofestiwal 2014. The shots totally capture all the grimness of a post-apocalyptic videogame, like Stalker or Metro: Last Light, except, well, this is a place you could actually visit.
You’re probably thinking: it can’t be that bad! But just take a look at the photos, as you consider that there’s such a high concentration of sulfur dioxide in the air that the surrounding wilderness is dead.
You can find more ghastly photos on Chernyshova’s wordpress.
