Eric Lafforgue’s North Korea
With multiple visits under his belt, and with an Arirang Mass Games photo gracing the cover of National Geographic Magazine, Eric Lafforgue is the world’s photography authority on North Korea. It was the discovery of his work just over a year ago that inspired me to learn digital photography and to pursue travel and street photography. Eric not only works his craft in North Korea, his award winning photos cover the most inaccessible parts of Africa, Asia, and beyond. Be sure to check them out at his Flickr page!
She’s called Kim i Sim – photo by Eric Lafforgue. The photo that cemented my obsession with North Korea and fueled my ambition to become a better photographer.
Several photo story series by Eric Lafforgue:
The Dear Leaders are watching you – North Korea
Through the lens of a master – a set of Arirang Mass Games photos by Eric Lafforgue.
I want to thank Eric for personally giving me his permission to post his photos on this blog!
Breaking DPRK News!
Breaking DPRK news from an inside source – North Korea will reopen to tourists starting Jan. 10th, 2012!
Reunification Statue – photo by Joseph A Ferris III
Pyongyang Children’s Palace, North Korea
The Pyongyang Children’s Palace, a place for the children of the privileged elite to spend time after school practicing sports, art, folk dance and music – and of course, show it all off with military like precision and forced smiles to groups of visiting foreign friends and tourists.
A young girl performs a North Korean folk dance at the Pyongyang Children’s Palace.
Nightmarishly Strange Mass Games
Dancing chickens, cows, sheep, and even a giant pig – a nightmarishly weird boasting of agriculture and animal husbandry power and success during the North Korean Arirang Mass Games.
Funny Old White Men in North Korea
Paintings of Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin in Kim Il-sung Square, Pyongyang, North Korea.
North Korean Photos by Andrew Lombardi
A collection of my favorite photos by Andrew Lombardi – the other photographer in my group on my trip to North Korea.
North Korean guide Mr. Lee.
North Korean Guide Ms. Yu.
Our fearless driver in North Korea.
Local guide at Mt. Myohyang, DPRK, North Korea.
School group at Mt. Myohyang caves, DPRK, North Korea.
North Korean children at the family home of Kim Il sung.
Trip guide Mrs Kim at the DMZ.
Frisbee diplomacy in Pyongyang.
Our guide “love(s) American civilians!” at the North Korea Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum
A required stop on any tour to North Korea is the Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum in Pyongyang. Here you will be ushered through room after room of displays showing off and explaining the great North Korean victory over American invaders during what we know as the Korean War (Forgotten War). What you see depends on your nationality, I have been told of three routes – perhaps there are more. North Korean visitors will see exhibits proclaiming the heroics of Kim Il-sung and the North Korean people and soldiers – little mention will be made of Chinese and Russian contributions. Separate exhibits for Chinese visitors celebrate their role in the war, while other exhibits for western foreigners focus on placing the blame for the conflict on the Americans and of telling of all the American war crimes and genocidal acts.
Our wonderful guide at the Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum.
We were shown war scene dioramas and 360 degree panoramas of Americans in defeat, DVD propaganda presentations, and led to a great basement warehouse housing captured tanks, wreaked airplanes, and all manner of war trophies and captured memorabilia – but the most interesting thing about the War Museum was our guide. We asked her who she thought had won the war, “we did of course because we defended our homeland against the great American invaders and forced a draw.” Pretty good answer we thought, but then one of us asked what she thought would happen if there was another conflict, her eyes lit up and a diabolical smile spread across her face, “if we need to defend our homeland again we will take the opportunity to annihilate the Americans!” WOW! – this was the first time on the trip we were exposed to such militaristic fanaticism – but I guess its pretty hard to get a job at the War Museum in North Korea if you are soft on Americans.
After being told of our impending annihilation we split our group between our trip guides and the local museum guide to fit into a small elevator to return to the museum entrance. Stuffed in the elevator between 5 big western men our guide asked us where we were from – Michigan, Maine, California, and so on. The look on our guide’s face was priceless, she was stuck in an elevator with 5 arch enemy Americans just moments after she predicted our impending annihilation by North Korean troops. The look of shock on her face changed into a big smile as our guide declared “I love American civilians!” and together we all all broke out into laughter – one of the best moments of the trip!
Our wonderful guide at the Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum.
A portion of the giant 360 degree American defeat panorama painting.
Americans in defeat, painting at the North Korea Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum.
Wreak of an American plane form the Korean War.
Captured American tank from the Korean War.
War trophies from the sailors of the captured USNS Pueblo – American spy ship.
Exhibit on the capture of the captured USNS Pueblo – American spy ship.
Kim Jong-Il is Dead… What Now?
I try to avoid politics on this blog, I want to be invited back for a return trip to the DPRK, so I mostly stick with the cultural side of things highlighted by my original photos, and with an occasional link to the more controversial posts over at my associate’s site, The North Korea Blog.
This morning I found some interesting analysis about what the future might hold for the DPRK, all dependent on how well the young Kim Jung-un is able to quickly consolidate power. Check it out at the link below.
Kim Jong-Il is Dead… What Now?
Will Juche Idea survive?
Tower of the Juche Idea – photo by Joseph A Ferris III
North Korean Visa Application Sent
Just sent in my application for a North Korean visa! Who knows if this 2nd trip to the DPRK will actually happen – fingers crossed.
Arirang Mass Games – photo by Joseph A Ferris III
Pyongyang Metro Propaganda
Beautiful propaganda murals, mosaics, and statues from the Pyongyang Metro. Related post and pictures about the Pyongyang Metro here.
Pyongyang Golf Course (9 holes) is gone!
The 2012 PGA tour through North Korea has been canceled – just joking, but as per the article below it looks like the 9 hole Pyongyang course at the Yanggakdo Hotel has been removed.
Yanggakdo Golf Course is no more…
Yanggakdo Golf Course Aug. 2011 – Photo by Joseph A Ferris III
Citizen Actors North Korea – Part 2
Yesterday I wrote about North Korean citizen actors and how I didn’t really believe they were employed on the Pyongyang metro for the benefit of tourists, but there were some instances on our trip that we felt we had encountered citizen actors. Below two women play a board game on the Koryo Museum grounds in Kaesong. So engrossed in their game that they ignored our presence as we passed by, but just a short time later I backtracked to get a few more pics and they were gone.
North Korea is officially an atheist state with all of the people’s attention and energy directed to the personalty cult of Kim II-sung and Kim Jong-il – that’s why I suspect the monk below is actually an actor working at the Pohyon Buddhist Temple, but I could be wrong.
Citizen Actors North Korea – Part 1
Urban legends and rumors abound that when on tour in North Korea the people you encounter will be government paid actors – this rumor mostly centers around the Pyongyang metro experience.
I agree with the above writer and feel that the metro was an authentic experience, but I also believe that just a few years back, when North Korea was first allowing in tourists and before the current construction boom, that it was possible that the metro might have had some citizen actors riding the trains for whatever reason the government felt that they needed them there.
The following is a collection of photos I took at various stations on the Pyongyang metro. Could all this be an elaborate set and show for foreign visitors? I think not. Tomorrow I will post Part 2, a small photo collection of the people we encountered and suspected of actually being citizen actors.
Signal lady at the Pyongyang metro.
Signal ladies at the Pyongyang metro.
The long escalator down to a Pyongyang metro station.
Female soldier catching her train.
Metro train interior.
Signal lady and train.
Man waiting for his train.
Crowd offloading a metro train.
Pyongyang metro signal lady at attention.
Pyongyang metro signal lady at attention.
North Korean school group at the metro.
North Korean school group at the metro.
North Korean school group at the metro.
Waiting for the train at the Pyongyang metro.
North Korea in Black and White
A photo collection of the children of North Korea in black in white from my Aug. 2011 trip.
North Korea – My Hopes and Fears
I have it from a contact that North Korea has instituted a total communications lock down – nothing in or out unless authorized by the highest levels of government leadership. Of course it was the death of the ‘Dear Leader’ Kim Jong-il that ushered in this latest crackdown. I really hope this current state of uneasiness, and the probable period of instability to come, will quickly pass. I have a trip planned for this April and I hope travel restrictions are lifted by then – but that’s a selfish reason. On my first trip I truly fell in love the North Korean people and I hope them the best – the average person there deserves better.
We shared amazing moments with the North Koreans we were lucky enough to meet – interactions I would never have believed possible. We were the great American enemy, but we laughed, danced, sang, joked, played games, held hands, and even shed a few tears.
Frisbee Diplomacy – doing our own little part to help American and North Korean relations and understanding at a grassroots level. More on this to come!
The First Podcast From Inside North Korea
In Aug. 2011 Jordan Harbinger, Neil Strauss, Gabriel Mizrahi, and Joseph A Ferris III (me), recorded the first podcast ever from inside North Korea- check it out here! Then hear our reflections upon returning to the States – except for myself, I returned to Taiwan.
Arirang Mass Games, Pyongyang, DPRK, North Korea.
Kim Jong II 12-17-11
A photo collection of Kim Jong-il in art from my Aug. 2011 North Korea trip.
Pyongyang scene with Kim Jong-il.
Kim Jong-il and Kim Il-sung give on the spot bridge building guidance. Diorama from the Pyongyang Railway Museum.
Kim Jong-il and Kim Il-sung give on the spot bridge building guidance. Diorama from the Pyongyang Railway Museum.
Kim Jong-il and Kim Il-sung looking at Things.
Baby Kim Jong-il and the cabin where he was born at the sacred Mt. Baekdu San – although he was really born in Russia.
Baby Kim Jong-il gives “on the spot” battle guidance.
Kim Jong-il – I’m not sure what this painting is about.
Kim Jong-il in a Pyongyang street painting.
Kim Jong-il and Kim Il-sung in a Pyongyang Railway Museum mural.
The ‘Dear Leader’
Neil Strauss, Jordan Harbinger, and Ingrid De La O with Kim Jong-il.
Kim Jong-il and Kim Il-sung at the Mt. Myohyang hotel.
Announcing the passing of the ‘Dear Leader’ Kim Jong Il
Kim Jong Il may have passed away today, but An American in North Korea marches on!
A North Korean State TV newscaster breaks down as she announces the passing of the “Dear Leader’.
N Korean leader Kim Jong-il dies
In a “special broadcast” Monday from the North Korean capital, state media said Kim died of a heart ailment on a train due to a “great mental and physical strain” on Dec. 17 during a “high intensity field inspection.” It said an autopsy was done on Dec. 18 and “fully confirmed” the diagnosis.
Sexy Soldier Girl Monday
Starting the week off right with the sexy soldier girls of the North Korean Arirang Mass Games.
Pyongyang: The Real Sin City
By Contributing Writer Gabriel Mizrahi
North Korea is a staggering place. There’s no other way to describe it. It’s an eerie, perverse, brutal country — this we know well — but it’s also tender, funny and entertaining in a way I have never encountered. It’s the only country where you will visit the corpse of a dictator who still reigns, see a 100,000-person acrobatic spectacle, enjoy a hilarious round of dick jokes over afternoon spelunking, take walks with starving child soldiers, then finish up the day at a shooting range that serves alcohol — and all of this on a peninsula that boasts an enviable gene pool and one of the craziest chapters in history.
If that sounds absurd, it was. And I haven’t even told you about the citizen actors or stand-up comedy yet. The seven days we spent there were insane — and insanely interesting. We were on a straight-up high for a good two months after returning to the States. I think I still am……..Read more at the North Korea Blog.
East meets West in Pyongyang – Photo by Kinabalu
Domestic Tourism North Korea
An interesting photo series showing North Koreans on a domestic tour at the Pohyon-sa Buddhist temple at Mt. Myohyang. This 11th century temple is considered an important North Korean historic treasure, and although taken over by the state, it still houses important religious texts and a few active monks (at least I hope they are active and not actors).
