Other images come with decades of history. Photographer Michael Forster Rothbart's series "After Chernobyl" is one compelling example. Forster Rothbart has traced the legacy of the nuclear explosion at Chernobyl in 1986, living for a time in a village just outside of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. This photo was taken at Slavutych, about 50 miles from the Chernoblyl site.

Forster Rothbart writes:

"In the popular imagination, the Chernobyl region is a wasteland—forsaken, hazardous and inaccessible. And yet, a generation later, life continues in these radiation-affected areas. Six million people still reside here... How much radiation is safe? No one knows. Comprehensive medical research has never been done to determine the health effects of long-term radiation exposure. In the absence of facts, people believe rumors, propaganda, and their own first-hand experiences. Why do people stay? A lack of alternatives. A sense of duty. Deep ties to the land. Decent jobs. Because this is home."