Street Photography Awards 2026 – Deadline June 17, 2026 Enter Today

Gerd Ludwig

The Long Shadow of Chernobyl
  • Location:
    Los Angeles, CA, United States
  • Agencies:
    National Geographic Creative
About Gerd Ludwig

Gerd Ludwig has worked primarily for National Geographic since 1989. His focus on environmental issues and the socio-economic changes following the dissolution of the Soviet Bloc resulted in a retrospective exhibition and book (2001), “Broken Empire: After the Fall of the USSR.”

In 2014, his 20-year retrospective photo book “The Long Shadow of Chernobyl,” was published by Edition Lammerhuber. His latest book, “Sleeping Cars,” will be published in spring 2016, also by Edition Lammerhuber.

Gerd Ludwig has won numerous photographic awards, including the IPA’s 2006 Lucie Award for International Photographer of the Year, the Dr. Erich Salomon Prize from the German Society of Photography in 2014, and the Honor Medal for Distinguished Service in Journalism from the Missouri School of Journalism in 2015.

Featured on LensCulture
  • Sleeping Cars: Automobile Portraits in LA
    Gerd Ludwig
    When we think of Los Angeles, we likely think of cars: traffic jams, gridlocks, parking lots, freeways. But at night, when the motorways are clear, where do the 7+ million LA cars go to sleep? Playful portraits of the city’s residents at rest.
  • The Long Shadow of Chernobyl
    Gerd Ludwig
    A monumental work, spanning two decades, that conveys both the individual tragedies and historical consequences of humanity’s greatest nuclear disaster.
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Gerd Ludwig's Projects on LensCulture
Gerd Ludwig's Books