Gerd Ludwig first photographed the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster for National Geographic Magazine in 1993, and again in 2005. In 2011, he created a kickstarter campaign that supported his return to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone to continue his ongoing coverage of the aftermath of the world's worst nuclear disaster to date, becoming one of the first internationally recognized documentary photographers to utilize crowdfunding for a personal project. While the campaign was still in progress, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster brought renewed attention to Chernobyl, nuclear energy issues, and his project, eventually pushing the funding to nearly 200% of its initial goal.