Elena Filatova

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Elena Filatova
Born 1974
Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union
Pen name Kid of Speed
Gamma Girl
Occupation Writer, Photographer
Genres Nonfiction, History

Elena Vladimirovna Filatova (Russian: Елена Филатова, Ukrainian: Олена Володимирівна Філатова; born 1974 in Ukraine, Soviet Union) is a Ukrainian motorcyclist and photographer who uses the online nickname "KiddOfSpeed". Her website, containing a photo-essay of her purported solo motorcycle rides through Chernobyl's zone of alienation, gained her internet fame.[1] It was later suggested that the story accompanying the photos was fictional and that they were taken during a public group tour.[2] Her website gained popularity due to its mention on Slashdot and other online news sources.[3]

Contents

[edit] Chernobyl photos and motorcycle trip

On her website, she posted photographs which, she claimed, documented her motorcycle and tour trips in the area around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, starting just under 18 years after the nuclear disaster there. She visited the virtually abandoned city of Prypiat, Ukraine and a circular area surrounding the 1986 Chernobyl disaster known as the Exclusion Zone.[4]

Her website features a large number of photographs of Chernobyl-area buildings, cottages, rusting never-to-be-used Prypiat carnival equipment, the interiors of disused schools and homes, fire, gas, police and government stations, and of people who had since returned to the area. The photos are arranged in the form of a story presented as an account of a trip by a biker who travelled alone in the radiation zone. However, Chernobyl tour guide Yuri Tatarchuk claimed that Filatova "booked a tour, wore a leather biker jacket and posed for pictures."[2]

[edit] Criticism and response

There have been accusations that Filatova did not have special access, and that she and her husband took a standard tour available to all visitors. Additional, there have been suggestions that some of the pictures were staged.[citation needed]

[edit] Other projects

Among her more recent projects is a photo-journal about the Serpent's Wall near the city of Kiev, her home. The journal contains photos of Filatova's exploration of an ancient wall and more modern World War II fortifications built amongst its remains. She also includes history of the region during both the 1917 October Revolution and the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union.

Other links in her website lead to her photo journal of the day of Ukraine's Orange Revolution. In April 2007, she posted more photos of the surrounding Chernobyl area that had been taken in March of that year.

One of the latest projects on the site is photos of abandoned Soviet prison camps established under Joseph Stalin as part of the Soviet Gulag system.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

[edit] Bibliography

  • Filatova, Elena. Tjernobyl. Dagbok från spökstaden. ISBN 9171260501. 

[edit] External links

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