An American Tourist in North Korea

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By Jakob Schiller October 20, 2011 | 6:30 am | Categories: Street Shooting, Travel


North Korean women perform during the Mass Games in Pyongyang. Photo: Sam Gellman


When Sam Gellman booked a trip to North Korea, he knew people would be interested in seeing the photos he brought back. But he had no idea the work would go semi-viral.

Over the past month, Gellman’s North Korea set on Flickr has received more than 220,000 hits from people across the globe wanting to get a glimpse of one of the world’s most secluded nations.

Gellman, who is an experienced travel photographer but makes his living working in financial services in Hong Kong, said all the attention has been instructive.

Some of Gellman’s most popular North Korean photos are from the Mass Games, a choreographed spectacle held on special occasions with thousands of performers moving in unison to show nationalistic unity. The images capture the sheer enormity of the games along with the precisely calculated symmetry that he said is intended to promote the idea of the group over the individual.



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