The Sacrifice Zone

Eddo Hartmann’s new photographic project focuses on one of the first ‘sacrifice zones’ created by governments in the late modern era for the secret production, testing and maintenance of nuclear and chemical weapons of all kinds. The residents of these locations unknowingly became guinea pigs in the experiment. Today, these areas have become examples of ecocide: the irreversible destruction of nature on a large scale.

A remote area of Kazakhstan was once home to the Soviet Union’s main nuc...