Very few people get photos from North Korea closed. But there is an even more difficult challenge. Get there and take pictures several times in a row. Czech photographer Jan Šibík succeeded – something that is quite remarkable even from a global perspective. He arrived in the country of the dictators Kim Jong-il and Kim Jong-un in 2005, 2007 and 2019. Now he presents his photos in a new book and in an exhibition.
Photographer Jan Šibík he visited the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea three times over fourteen years. It was completely created unique evidence about the transformation of this seemingly unchanged land. At the same time, he captured not only the strange rituals that accompany the events there (and which create the appearance of immobility), but also the real life, which is usually hidden and secret from foreign visitors to North Korea. Not only did he take pictures of things he was allowed to do in Korea, but he managed to take pictures that would not pass the inspection of the local authorities.
Everywhere under the leadership of the regime
“I’ve always wanted to visit there. As a photographer, I’m drawn to countries that have no comparison. I’ve been trying to get a visa for ten years, but usually no I even got past the gate of the embassy for them, I went there with them,” recalls Jan Šibík.
“When you are a member of the delegation, it is better than when you go there as a tourist,” he said surprisingly. “It is a country where, as a foreigner, you cannot , leave the hotel, and you can’t even cross the street without permission from a designated guide (also an undercover policeman). When you’re there as a member of a political delegation, they can’t to police it so intensely, as they do with tourists,” he said.
In addition, two television crews were part of the delegation at that time. “When our guides saw the big cameras, they were scared and kept an eye on them. So the other photographer, Jan Zátorský, and I were sometimes able to take a picture of something from the side that was not allowed. ”
Locked in a train to Pyongyang
The second time Jan Šibík arrived in North Korea was in 2007. That’s when the first tours to this country began to appear in the offer of travel agencies. “I went there with my colleague from the Reflex every week, Dan Hruby. First we flew to Beijing, and from there we continued by train across the North Korean border to Pyongyang,” explained Šibík.
It was clear to him that the eight hour train ride was the most exciting part of the whole trip. According to him, the group of tourists included Czech “forged comrades”, several journalists and, surprisingly, a group of Moravians with a demijohn of slivovice. They started offering a sip of alcohol to the border control with the words: Bring us a drink, boys.
“I don’t know if it had anything to do with it, but they ended up locking us in the vehicle and we were alone there all the way, without local guides. I started looking at the camera and I wanted to take pictures through the window, but it was no use,” said Matchbox. When the Moravians saw his camera, they took out their backpacks, opened the window and started taking pictures. “Surprisingly, nothing happened. They stopped after five minutes, but then I stood next to the window the whole way and took pictures, says Šibík. He believes that the pictures taken from the train are among the most valuable. “I took pictures of soldiers, villages, and people who live in poverty,” he says. The pictures were then published on twelve pages by him the prestigious Stern magazine.
Without guidance, not a degree
In Phongyang, tourists were looked after by “guides”, who were then with them twenty-four hours a day. “They decided the program, they lived in the same hotel. When I wanted to go out in the evening, they wouldn’t let me,” Šibík explains.
The tourists had a carefully prepared program which included, for example, a trip to one authorized metro station or the Gift Museum. There you can see, for example, a military vehicle, dedicated to the North Korean leader Stalin. They also saw the House of Pioneers, which accommodates five thousand children. “Everything is so strange that it makes sense to take pictures of even the things that are officially allowed,” said Šibík.
After fourteen years, back in Pyongyang
He himself carefully follows the work of other photographers who arrived in North Korea and the books they published. For the most part, they worked according to the same formula: they went there once or twice in a short period of time, took a series of pictures and published a book. However, Jan Šibík wanted something else: to document how the country is changing. That’s why he decided to go there one more time. He only succeeded in 2019, again with the help of Lubomír Zaorálek.
“It was not easy, only a small group of politicians were going there at the time, but in the end Mr. Zaorálek came to meet me and he agreed to put us on the list of partners, if yes, of course, my colleague Milan Šmíd and I cover all the costs,” explained Šibík. So he was probably the only photographer, or one of the very few, who could take pictures in North Korea both during the time of Kim Jong-il and his successor, Kim Jong-un.
Gray changed colors, hardness remained
“Suddenly I could make a comparison because I saw North Korea three times in fourteen years,” says Šibík. According to him, the change is big. “In 2005, there were no shops to be seen on the streets of Pyongyang. It was a Russian-style gray city. I experienced, for example, a situation where a policeman was directing traffic at an intersection , but there was no car to be seen,” said the photographer. In 2007, according to him, there was a little business here and there, but the gray continued.
“When I arrived again in 2019, it was an amazing change,” describes Šibík. “Suddenly Pyongyang was a colorful city with neon lights and skyscrapers, because Kim Jong Un is obsessed with Western technologies. But it is these technologies that cut him off. People have a chance to find out (although they are under the threat of severe punishments) it seems other places and perhaps it is not so surprising for them compared to the world, as the regime introduces in them from the nursery The hardship that ensures the loyalty and obedience of the country is greater, ” said the photographer.
However, one still experiences unreal things there. “For example, the tour guide told us about a book written by Kim Jong-il. Then it turned out that he had written books about economics, rockets, tractors and orchid cultivation. So I asked how many books their director had written. The tour guide without batting an eye and without any doubt answered: Two thousand,” says Šibík.
Photo author: Jan Šibík
Jan Šibík: North Korea
Unique photos from three trips to North Korea. The publication contains 128 pictures on 240 pages and an accompanying text by Dan Hrubé. Hardcover, format 24x32cm, The book is available directly from the author, on the website www.fotografiesibik.cz. The exhibition of the same name in Karolin in Prague will run between 26 September and 24 November.
The book is not a fast moving commodity
Photographers entering North Korea are screened by a designated security guard while they work and then again at the border when they leave the country. Unauthorized images will be looked for during the inspections. Nevertheless, Jan Šibík managed not only to take these pictures, but also to bring them back.
He has now processed the photos and prepared from them an exhibition in Karolin in Prague and a book called North Korea. “She’s very important to me,” he admits. He published himself, as well as six previous publications. “I also sell them myself through my online store,” he explains. “Book distribution companies want a big discount. It’s fifty to sixty percent of the price of a copy, and that’s not acceptable to me. I would like to earn something for myself by selling, so that I have something to finance my next trip, “says Šibík, who has been working for ten years as a freelance photographer.
He also dislikes the fact that book distribution treats books as fast moving goods that must be sold within six months, or they will be sold. “I make the books as perfect as possible, I’m a perfectionist. I want them to be able to sell them for five or six years,” he explains.
