Sean Gallagher is unlike most people. He has been to Pyongyang. In September the award-winning, Beijing-based photographer and the Canadian Globe and Mail's Asia correspondent, Mark MacKinnon, entered North Korea as tourists. Gallagher wrote about his experience in an article for The Digital Journalist titled Inside North Korea, and now he talks further about North Korea with Common Sense and Whiskey:
- Sean, thanks very much for answering a few questions about your trip to North Korea. First, you're a British photojournalist working in China, right? Tell us a little about your work.
My work in China over the past 3 years has focused mainly on social and environmental issues although recently I have been focusing more on the environmental side. My biggest project of note so far has been on the issue of desertification in China, for which I have received a number of grants and awards. This is the work people probably now know me most for.
- So, you and a colleague crossed the China/North Korea border into North Korea in a bus with Chinese people, right? Since you're not Chinese, did you attract extra attention from the border guards?Well, we stood out like sore thumbs to be honest. Our entry into North Korea was all a bit ‘cloak and dagger’, so we were getting handed from one person to the next, just doing what we were told. When we got told to get on a bus full of Chinese tourists, we did it. The border guards saw us but we think they obviously knew we were coming, so they didn’t do anything.
- Sounds like you were maybe bringing in a camera that was a little more than a point-and-shoot? How did you manage that?
I broke my camera up into as many parts as possible, to make it look less suspicious. When they went though my bags they found my relatively large 16-35mm Canon L lens and took a good minute looking it over. I was a little nervous at this point as it would have been pretty tricky taking pictures without it. Eventually, they put it back into my back and waved me past.
- We read of visitors to the DPRK never being outside of the gaze of their minders. Was that the case for you? Did you ever try to slip away for a walk? Did you and your minders speak English? Mandarin?
We were constantly shadowed by our minders. We had two. One who was our translator and guide, the other just hung in the shadows and followed us around, always within earshot. To my knowledge, both of our minders spoke English and Mandarin.
- We always imagine vast, Communist block style buildings with no heat and dim lights, but it looks from your photos like there are some tolerably nice hotels in Pyongyang. True?
The only hotels you see in my images are either the one that we stayed in in Pyongyang, which houses all foreign guests, or ones which house foreign guests at various tourists sights across the country. They weren’t for the average North Korean citizen. Our hotels were opulent, however the reality for most North Koreans is completely different. Regular power cuts, even in the capital, occur. I noticed however, they always leave the electricity running for the lights which light up various portraits of the leaders about town.
- Outside North Korea, it's safe to say we have an overall impression of paranoia and fear there. Would you say that's accurate? And if they'd have you, would you visit again?I can’t really speculate on what the average North Korean thinks because we were given no chance at all to speak to the average person. Sometimes we got close and I was able to grab some images but we were quickly whisked away by our minders before we could interact any further. I know for sure though, that I felt a high level of paranoia and fear there but that was because I felt we were under constant suspicion. Even between groups of other foreign visitors (who we were kept separate from) there was a level of distrust, born from where we were.
Would I like to go back? Sure. It’s a photographer’s paradise really. I’m not sure they’ll have me back anytime soon though.
- One more thing - since you've returned from North Korea, have you learned when the Tower Bridge was built?Ha. I must admit, I went on the internet to check that when I got back. I wasn’t that far off. They were a bit tough on me!
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See Sean's photography at his web site Gallagher-photo.com, keep up with Sean at his blog, and if you're in Beijing, check out his workshops for amateur photographers.
(Top photo: Sean Gallagher. The others, of North Korea, are from Sean Gallagher's web site.)
Thanks for the entertaining and interesting interview. I don't think most of us will ever have the opportunity to visit North Korea.
Posted by: Bobby Long | 21 November 2009 at 12:48 PM