Tomas van Houtryve

‘Behind the Curtain: North Korea’

North Korea is the only communist country which remains completely isolated from other nations and which maintains its population constantly on a war footing. Government propaganda instils a continuous hatred of the enemy and reverence for the Great Leader. From 1997, Kim Jung II has managed to impose his ideology based on the army and military priority.

The information which enters and leaves the country is strictly controlled by the state, which prohibits the use of mobile telephones and the internet. Outside visitors leave their mobiles and passports with the authorities during their stay. Foreigners are not allowed to leave their hotel without authority and the presence of an official guide.

Van Houtryve took these photographs during two trips, in 2007 and 2008, during which all his movements were monitored and strictly controlled by government agents. His photographs show the interiors of factories, hospitals, government offices and of the Pyongyang elite military academy. The artist offers us a portrait of a society dominated by Juche ideology, a mixture of hard-line communism and self sufficiency.

Background

California, USA, 1975. Lives and works in Paris, France.

Van Houtryve discovered his passion for photography during a period spent studying in Nepal. After graduation, he began his photographic career in Latin America. In 2004, he returned to Nepal to document the growing Maoist rebellion there. He has exhibited individually in France and Italy, and his reportages have been published in informative magazines such as Newsweek, The New York Time Magazine, Stern, GEO and National Geographic.

In 2006 he received the Young Photographer Award at the Perpignan festival, Visa pour l’image. In 2008 he was awarded the 2008 Human Rights Press Award, given Amnesty International Hong Kong.