five children posing inside colorful bumper cars
Children pause between collisions on a bumper car course at Mangyongdae Funfair outside Pyongyang. In this totalitarian country, few residents have had the experience of posing for a portrait.

This Is What Daily Life in North Korea Looks Like

In a country where behavior is tightly controlled, a photographer captures individuality on the streets and in the businesses of Pyongyang.

ByNina Strochlic
Photographs byStéphan Gladieu
4 min read
This story appears in the June 2018 issue of National Geographic magazine.

There are 25 million people in North Korea, but the only visible portraits are of its leaders. Regular people are rarely photographed unless they are in a large group—even on their wedding day.

In 2017 French photographer Stéphan Gladieu went to North Korea to discover its citizens’ individuality. At factories and farms the cleanest workers were trotted out for him. “In a country where ‘individuals’ don’t exist, I was doing something crazy by asking people to stand alone,” says Gladieu. He was repeatedly reminded of this by his minders, who chose the facilities he visited. He picked his subjects—though sometimes the minders would argue the person was too ugly, old, or unkempt.

Taken alone, each portrait could look like smiling propaganda for the authoritarian regime. Together, they have an unsettling uniformity. The subversion is in this repetition, he says. Even standing next to him, his guides didn’t understand what he was doing. “They could never see what I saw,” says Gladieu. “They’re so far away, in a different world.”

two female workers posing for a portrait in matching bathing suits and green pool tubes
An entertainment wonderland perches on top of a food factory, where workers can swim, play basketball, or relax in a sauna. On display in the pool is a trophy the factory received for providing food to North Korea’s athletes.
three young men posing in a bowling alley with bowling balls in their hand
Students bowl at the colorful Golden Lane Bowling Alley. The large facility, which also has arcade games and a bar, is a popular stop for tourists on government controlled trips
two men standing in front of a large monument of a hammer, sickle and calligraphy brush
Two office workers stand in front of Pyongyang’s Monument to Party Founding. The hammer, sickle (center), and calligraphy brush represent workers, farmers, and intellectuals.
two women, a doctor and a worker posing for a portrait, two frames hang on the wall
A doctor examines a worker in North Korea’s largest textile factory, where a majority of the 10,000 employees are women. Before UN sanctions in 2017, textiles were one of the most profitable exports.
six students posing for a portrait inside a classroom
a female hairdresser and female customer posing for a portrait in a barbershop
a female traffic officer posing for a portrait on an empty street
four young men standing in a downtown area dressed in a white shirt and red tie
a women working behind a counter filled with bras and textiles
a family posing behind a tribute to a space program
Gifted students attend class at Pyongyang No. 1 Senior-Middle School, which was founded in 1984. There are similar schools in each province, but this one is considered the best.
PHOTOGRAPH BY STÉPHAN GLADIEU
a couple posing in the middle of a square, the woman holds a purple umbrella
A couple poses in the middle of Kim Il Sung Square, which can fit an estimated 100,000 people for national military parades. The building behind them is the Grand People’s Study House, a lecture hall and library.

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