Forty years ago, on April 26, 1986, operators of the Number 4 reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant began running a safety test that turned into disaster -- one that would cause the death of untold thousands, drive and change the course of world history. In 1993, photographer Gerd Ludwig began photographing the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone for a National Geographic magazine story. He returned to document the aftermath of the nuclear disaster in 2005, 2011, 2013, and 2023, and in 2014 he published his book "The Long Shadow of Chernobyl." "As engaged photographers we often report about human tragedies in the face of disaster, and take our cameras to uncharted areas with the understanding that our explorations are not without personal risk," he has noted.

  Earth Day, for me, has always felt less like a global mandate and more like a quiet, necessary recalibration of the eye. It’s that brief, sharp moment each April where we’re asked to stop simply consuming the landscape and start actually seeing it—the way the light hits a revitalized urban garden or the stark, graphic silhouette of a lone tree against a changing skyline. In a world that feels increasingly digitized and frantic, Earth Day acts as a vital, tact...