[imText1]Lee Man Keun (pseudonym) has been gaining much interest having published a series of photos “7 Years in North Korea,” containing a collection of pictures he took at the light water construction site avoiding North Korea regulations as he worked 7 years at a photo gallery for the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO) and originally worked for the Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Co.
Despite being a Korean, Lee revealed that he risked his life evading the eyes of North Korean safety guards to take photos that portrayed the reality of North Korea. Though he was publicly threatened and prejudiced as a “sick American employee,” he continued to capture photos even under regulation and control.
North Korean authorities seriously shun any inside photos of North Korea publicly displayed outside the country. In particular, as photos and video footages are items for censorship, the photographer said that as an employee at the KEDO photo gallery, he was a “number 1 target.” During this time, he was often confiscated and examined and even received trial from the people’s council. Battling all these hurdles, the photographer brought with him 175 photos to South Korea and created a photo collection.
[imText2]In the preface, he revealed “I did not think it true to society and to history by burying the experiences and disciplines in North Korea” and “I took these photos of North Korean people in their daily lives to relay it to the South Korean people.”
He added “The reality of North Korea portrayed in the photos makes you feel confused as it shows a ‘savage nation’ who develops nuclear weapons and fires missiles as well as a ‘nation of street kids’ with chronic starvation” and “I was able to plainly see the basis of confusion full of misunderstanding and discrimination while taking the photos (in North Korea) for 7 years.”
Using a memo full of detailed information of his life in North Korea for 7 years as a background, he tried to maintain “A true North Korea.” The pictorial contains a collection of photos not only of farmers but of the city and symbolic icons.
Chapter 1 displays photos of tactics and ways to obtain goods without concealment, chapter 2, public services by the people for the dictator, chapter 3, unique characteristics of North Korean lifestyle yet its poverty, chapter 4, the great disparity between knowledge by South and North Korean way of living, and chapter 5, a message full of hope for one nation despite the big differences.
Lee worked 30 years for the Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Co. and has been selected as a final candidate in 40 or so photo competitions. In 2005, he also published a book containing pictures of North Korean farms “Daily scenes of the North.”
[Following are some key photos from the book]
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