Tag: North Korea; DPRK

Philippe Chancel: Kim Happiness

Questioning the ethics of his own images from North Korea, the French photographer asks whether it is permissible to enjoy an image knowing that the beauty could be masking the suffering of a nation

5 June 2019

Q&A: Nicholas Bonner shows North Korea’s carefully-cultivated image

Nicholas Bonner first visited Korea in 1993, and since then has spent “most of my adult life involved in North Korea”. Now based in Beijing, he makes regular trips to the country with his company, Koryo Tours, and has also put together films and other cultural projects with North Korea with his other business, Koryo Studio. Bonner has collected ephemera from North Korea for nearly 25 years and recently published a book showcasing some of it with Phaidon, Made in North Korea: Graphics from Everyday Life. Featuring everything from metro tickets to stamps, postcards to luggage labels, tinned food labels to gift-wrap, it includes a healthy proportion of photographs made and disseminated by the DPRK. BJP  caught up with him to find out more. 

7 February 2018