North Korea – A Life between Propaganda and Reality – Alice Wielinga

A fascinating mix of propaganda and photography. Found in the Guardian

After winning the first prize at the Photo Folio Review 2014, North Korea, a Life between Propaganda and Reality will be shown during the 2015 edition of the international renown photofestival Les Rencontres d’Arles.

As the winner of the Photo Folio Review 2014, Alice’s project will be shown in a soloshow at the Eglise Saint Blaise.

On North Korea, a Life between Propaganda and Reality:
April 2013. While the Western media follows Kim Jong-Un’s steps during his missile test launches, I travel 2,500 kilometres through the North Korean interior. Once arrived, the images I know from my advance research correspond with the scenes my guides proudly show me during their propaganda tour. But seeing these scenes with my own eyes, I gradually discover that behind everything they present to me, a different reality is hidden. While I listen to my guides talking about what invaluable contributions the greatly admired leaders made to their country, I drive through a landscape that looks haggard and desolate. During my journey I collect propaganda material and take photographs of the reality I encounter. This material is the basis for my multimedia project ‘North Korea, a Life between Propaganda and Reality’. With the found propaganda images and my own photographs I compose a story that deconstructs the North Korean propaganda.

The exhibition can be visited from July 6 till September 20 in Eglise Saint Blaise in Arles.

For more information, visit the festival’s website:
Les Rencontres d’Arles

See more here

 

David Guttenfelder in North Korea

David Guttenfelder has been in North Korea for a while it seems, we first came across his pictures more than a year ago.

While threats of a missile launch have renewed tensions with North Korea, photojournalist David Guttenfelder has returned to continue documenting life there.

As the world watches to see what North Korea’s next move will be in a high-stakes game of brinksmanship with the United States, residents of its capital aren’t hunkering down in bunkers and preparing for the worst. Instead, they are out on the streets en masse for the birthday of national founder Kim Il Sung — the biggest holiday of the year.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry delivered a stark warning to North Korea on Friday not to test-fire a mid-range missile, while rejecting a new U.S. intelligence report suggesting significant progress in the communist regime’s nuclear weapons program. These galleries are from the Denver Post

all images  David Guttenfelder

Here are links to earlier posts that you really should see

North Korea in Autumn – David Guttenfelder

Utterly fantastic North Korea by David Guttenfelder

 

Did North Korea photoshop its hovercraft?

The many uses of Photoshop are obvious but world domination is not common however as The Guardian reports here those naughty NK’s have been at it again

It appears North Korea has doctored pictures of its military to make it look more impressive than it is – and not for the first time, read the full article with diagrams and explanations here

This picture released by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency on March 26, 2013 and taken on March 25, 2013 shows the landing and anti-landing drills of KPA Large Combined Units 324 and 287 and KPA Navy Combined Unit 597 at an undisclosed location on North Korea’s east coast.   Rather thrilling it is too!

North Korea in Autumn – David Guttenfelder

More fantastic images from David in Korea and found on my ever favourite Denver Post site

“MOUNT KUMGANG, North Korea – Autumn has always been the most cherished season in Korea, a time to harvest and to hike, to store up food and enjoy the last days of warmth before the peninsula’s notoriously brutal winters. Even in the impoverished North, families find time to gather, around a mountain campfire or in a courtyard where cabbage is laid out to make the year’s supply of pungent kimchi.

This year, in North Korea, as the days become shorter and the evenings chilly, there is a greater sense of urgency in the air.

The whole country is preparing for the big celebrations next April to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of Kim Il Sung, the ex-guerrilla fighter who founded North Korea in 1948 and remains the nation’s “eternal president” long after his death in 1994. His son, current leader Kim Jong Il, is simultaneously grooming his own young son, Kim Jong Un, to succeed him.”  See the whole series here

North Korean acrobats do cartwheels at a Arirang Mass Games performance in Pyongyang, North Korea. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

North Korean students at Pyongyang University of Science and Technology descend the stairs after a seminar and lecture. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

A North Korean shop employee is reflected in mirrors at a store attached to a factory that manufactures all of the goods sold on the shelves of the shop in Pyongyang, North Korea. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

North Korean commuters make their way along a Pyongyang city street in North Korea. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

More here

 

 

Utterly fantastic North Korea by David Guttenfelder

From the Denver Post quite the most brilliant pictures from North Korea by David Guttenfelder….more here, just go and look

Central Pyongyang, North Korea at dusk. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder) #

A young girl stands on floral-print carpet inside the Pyongyang Children’s Palace in Pyongyang, North Korea. The large facility teaches performance arts, fine arts, and sports as extracurricular classes to students in Pyongyang. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder) #

A children’s choir performs in Pyongyang, North Korea. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder) #

A waitress is reflected in a mirror inside a hotel restaurant in Mount Myohyang, North Korea. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder) #

A girl plays the piano inside the Changgwang Elementary School in Pyongyang, North Korea. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder) #