North Korea - Martin Parr

© Martin Parr

Martin Parr is perhaps Britain's most notable member of Magnum Photos. His highly saturated photographs of Middle England, mock-Tudor houses, twee living rooms and his latest series on the noveau-riche found in Dubai provide a visual satire for some of the stranger and more overt facets of contemporary society. However, in the late '90s he did a little known project in the closed state of North Korea. Only 1, 500 Western tourists per year are granted access to the state that houses the last Stalinist regime in the world.

What I find especially interesting about this series is the power of the North Korean state. All photographs taken by tourists must be vetted by state officials to assure they portray the state in a positive light. The government, led by Kim Jong-il is keen to promulgate a textbook socialist image. However, the imagery is rather more reminiscent of bygone communist states and the 1930s USSR. Below you can see a screenshot that I found from the state broadcaster's news programme, complete with galliant horse nestled amongst tended trees:

The images, have been selectly authorised by state authorities to depict a 'harmonious' and 'utopian' socialist state. The state apparrently even run model farms from which they can create propaganda, scenes of prosperity and romanticsied images of yeoman farmers. The power of the state has muted the candescent images of Martin Parr. This is what I find most intriguing about the series - the lengths the state has gone to to promulgate images of prosperity, peace and happiness in a vain attempt to legitimise their grasp of power.

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There have emerged many stories recently of North Korean defectors - citizens who have fled the the state to neighbouring China. Many defectors have used their new found freedom to promote a revolution from the outside. In London, a former North Korean military officer who was patrolling the northern border when he made his break, has formed an opposition group to the tyrannical regime. They hope to produce radio, television and DVDs in attempt to wobble the foundations of the governments power-base. Another, defector fled to the South Korean capital Seoul where he also started a radio-station which airs to Pyongyang. Interviews are carried out in secret, smuggled across the border and then reaired back to North Korea. Recently the International Herald Tribune's ran a piece on several men running a radio station in Mongolia, travelling weekly to the North Korean border to release balloons holding leaflets. Once these reach 2, 500 metres the balloons release their payload of ''freedom doves' - leaflets that describe leader Kim Jong Il as a greedy, womanizing despot with a protruding belly'.

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In the 1990s, an agrarian crisis and its ensuant famine is estimated to have killed up to a million North Koreans (10% of the state's population). Anectdotal reports note that life for many is returning to these dark days where families scavenge for wild roots and plants to supplement weak diets.

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In recent times there has been much civil unrest. Successive currency devaluations have destroyed the lifetime savings of many. People have started begging on the streets. There have been reports of the first signs of widespread disillusionment with the government. People are becoming acutely aware of the wealth of the state's inadequacies and contrast between the ideals of textbook socialism, and the realities of life on the ground. South Korean 'soap operas' have appeared on televisions; people have become aware of their desperate poverty compared to the South. These are all facts that we remain blissfully unaware of through Parr's series. Ultimately the images display the sheer power of the state to create an image that is amiable to their ideals.