Big Picture: Chernobyl Riviera, by Guillaume Herbaut

While the situation in Kiev remains unstable, holidays are a distant dream. But until recently Ukraine’s nouveaux riches would often head north in their 4x4s to the small city of Strakholessie. Perched on the shores of the Sea of Kyiv on the river Dnieper, close to the border with Belarus, this part of the country is otherwise known as the Chernobyl Riviera, sitting as it does just 300m from the former nuclear plant’s forbidden zone – just a little to the left, out of shot, of the bathers pictured here. → Photograph: Guillaume Herbaut/INSTITUTE

Ukrainians with money have been flocking to this spot for years, building vast, gated mansions and employing armies of locals as housekeepers and gardeners. The attraction is obvious: it’s hot, quiet and naturally beautiful, particularly in summer, and you can hunt wild animals in the surrounding stretches of woodland. → Photograph: Guillaume Herbaut/INSTITUTE

Those with less disposable income can rent stylish older dachas, or holiday homes, for the season. In Kiev, it’s known as the outdoor man’s paradise. → Photograph: Guillaume Herbaut/INSTITUTE

Yet traces of this once-condemned, hastily-abandoned area’s recent past aren’t hard to find. Alongside the stretches of white sand are rusting pipes and cylinders, concrete slabs and other industrial detritus, reminders of the wasteland it became after the catastrophe of 26 April 1986. Although radioactivity levels are now deemed safe, dust is a big problem and it’s inadvisable to eat local fish. These swimmers, however, are unfussed – for them, cooling off is more important than any potential contamination as they swim a few kilometres downstream from the ruined reactor. → Photograph: Guillaume Herbaut/INSTITUTE

Photographer Guillaume Herbaut first visited Chernobyl’s forbidden zone in 2001, returning in 2009 to begin a project looking at those who live in and around the area; his subjects were happy to be photographed. It remains to be seen if they continue to come here as Ukraine’s political situation unravels. Photograph: Guillaume Herbaut/INSTITUTE