Abstract
Photography by Siv Rebekka Runhovde,Norwegian Police University College, Oslo, Norway.
Cold War era gas masks lie strewn across the floor of an elementary school in the abandoned city of Pripyat within the Chernobyl exclusion zone. Stored on site as a precaution against nuclear attack, the masks are said to have been removed from storage by looters in search of valuable metals like silver contained within the filters. As tourists flock in increasing numbers to the area it is also alleged that the masks and dolls have deliberately been placed there, staged for effect by tour guides and photographers.