As one of the few Western journalists who has traveled widely in North Korea, David Guttenfelder believes that photography can open a window onto a country. And on a recent trip to that closed society, he took that credo to a different level.
Six Days in North Korea
A photographer parts the curtains on one of the world’s least-known places and brings back pictures of a country defined for many by mystery and war.
About 31 floors up in his hotel room.
Firing up his Periscope app, Mr. Guttenfelder pointed his iPhone outside his hotel window and began to stream live video. Soon, he was being peppered with questions from online viewers: What was it like? What did he eat? How was it working there? That intense curiosity — not to mention engagement — was similar to when he had posted images to Instagram, not only during his recent visit, but also dating back to his tenure as The Associated Press’s chief Asia photographer.
“There’s probably not a better place to test the power of photography and photojournalism than a place that has never really allowed photography or foreigners there,” Mr. Guttenfelder said. “We don’t know very much about North Korea because it has not been photographed for 60-something years. The only images we ever see have been distributed by the state as propaganda. For me to go there over the years has been a rare opportunity and responsibility. Otherwise, it’s completely unknown. While imperfect, we have eyes on the ground and some windows opening.”
Mr. Guttenfelder, who left the news service last year and is now a National Geographic photography fellow, had gone to North Korea for a six-day assignment for The New York Times, initially to photograph a trip by Gloria Steinem and other peace activists who were meeting with North and South Korean women. But as with any of his more than 40 previous trips there, he found time to document daily moments.
Face it: In a place as walled-off and mysterious as North Korea, any image not produced by the state was a revelation. In a way, Mr. Guttenfelder said, he felt it was his responsibility to show the outside world the reality away from stage-managed events.
“It’s an amazing place to work as a photographer,” he said. “Anything I photograph I feel is of news value because we don’t know what the places looks like. Every picture looks like a piece of a puzzle, and the sum of the parts begin to reveal something.”
On the Ground in North Korea
“There’s probably not a better place to test the power of photography and photojournalism than a place that has never really allowed photography or foreigners there,” Mr. Guttenfelder said.
Image Credit Video: David GuttenfelderThat approach dates to one of his earliest trips to North Korea in 2000, when he accompanied then-Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright on a visit to Pyongyang. Back then, the Communist government gave new meaning to the notion of a closed society: The windows on his bus were covered with drapes, and he was told not to even bother taking out a camera. Even the windows of his hotel were covered.
“I couldn’t see outside,” he said. “I had the feeling that North Korea was not real. That it was a facade, like ‘The Truman Show.’ That’s what most people still think about North Korea.”
The importance of that visit took a back seat to things he began to notice on the periphery, like a scene of children tossing snowballs. At one point, when Dr. Albright was at a ceremony where food was being donated, he noticed a child who was cutting up in class. He could identify, imagining himself as a child being the class clown. It was a breakthrough moment.
“Regular life shouldn’t be surprising. It should not be surprising there is real life and people try to get by.”
“That was a surprising moment and informed how I try to photograph the country,” he said. “There are connections to be made. There are universal things to discover in a photo. Regular life shouldn’t be surprising. It should not be surprising there is real life and people try to get by. That seems to be one of the loudest things I can say with really subtle, mundane moments.”
He embraced that approach in earnest in 2013, when North Korea allowed local 3G mobile phone service, permitting him to do everything people in the United States were doing on their smartphones, including using Twitter, Instagram and Foursquare. While others used the technology for personal reasons and connections, he saw the value as a journalist in an isolated society.
His Instagram feed attracted hundreds of thousands of followers, and he realized this work on social media was as important as any of the other photography and journalism he was doing. With his use of Periscope, he continued to find new ways to use new tools, even if he had first used it only a month earlier — to watch the title bout between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. “I ended up watching with some family in Mexico filming the fight” on their living room television, he said. “I hadn’t used it until I got to North Korea.”
But once there, he took advantage. During a drive in the countryside, he again pointed his phone out the window, showing rural scenes.
“To see the countryside, the rural areas of the country, and know it was not me being led, directed to stand in some spot, this was clearly candid, the world passing by… ,” he said. “Even if the video is a bit shaky, it’s certainly not broadcast quality, but it’s more powerful in a way. People feel they are there, and you can transport them to a place very few people have ever seen.”
North Korea From the Road
David Guttenfelder shares his experiences on the road in North Korea with viewers on Periscope.
Image Credit Video: David GuttenfelderBringing outsiders into close contact with life in North Korea — if only via a phone or a laptop — continues to guide Mr. Guttenfelder. He has been curating @EverydayDPRK, an Instagram feed in which he features images taken by foreigners living in or visiting North Korea. His contributors include a model-turned-English-teacher from California; a tour guide who had made some 150 trips there; and an Indonesian stay-at-home father.
Each one offers another peek, another piece of the puzzle. Each image also helps dispel some of the misconceptions about the country.
“They are questioning reality,” Mr. Guttenfelder said of some viewers. “It’s hard for people to believe that North Koreans commute to work on the bus, or what they see in cities and the countryside is representative of real life there.”
Granted, a dictatorship wary of the outside world is not an easy place to work. Some critics would counsel him to stay away altogether, rather than try any engagement. Mr. Guttenfelder said that despite the constraints, he had not been censored, which in some ways makes his responsibility even greater: to decide what is real or not.
“Social media is uncharted territory for all of us, including North Korea,” he said. “I’m allowed to work there as a journalist, and this is a tool, one of the many I use to tell the story. I don’t think there is a clear line on this. I also think there shouldn’t be, really. I think it’s in everyone’s interest to have connections made between North Korea, its neighbors and the rest of the world. The more information that flows in both directions, the better for everyone.”
You can view Mr. Guttenfelder’s full photo interactive from North Korea here.
Follow @dguttenfelder on Twitter to see his next Periscope broadcast. @dgbxny and @nytimesphoto are also on Twitter. Lens is on Facebook and Instagram.
