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InspirationPhotography

Photographer takes fascinating shots of North Korea's secretive capital

Contrary to popular belief, you can actually visit North Korea if you want to and obtaining a tourist visa isn't that difficult. As long as you're not part of the media. Just don't hope to travel independently and be prepared to follow certain rules.

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Via Creative Boom submission. All images courtesy of the artist.

Via Creative Boom submission. All images courtesy of the artist.

French photographer Hélène Veilleux is someone who recently visited Pyongyang, North Korea's secretive capital. As a tourist, with her forehead pressed against a bus window, accompanied by guides – presumably to ensure she does exactly what they want and doesn't run off at her own free will – she takes as many snaps as she can.

Speaking of her trip, she talks of urgency to document what she sees: "Clinging to my camera, accumulating postcard pictures, I hope to finally confront the reality of this city nestled beyond the 38th parallel north with the sum of the images, rumours and fantasies laying inside me. But I’m a tourist, and the bus is back on track…"

Tourist companies in North Korea – or the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, if we want to be accurate – have seen a surge in the number of holidaymakers travelling to their beloved home. Some believe Kim Jong-un has sparked international interest with many people's curiosity driving them there with the hope of an insight into what is the most secretive country on earth. If you're one of those inquisitive people, then hopefully Veilleux's photo series will satisfy your curiosity.

Discover more of her work at ladentdeloeil.net.

The Arch of Triumph, a monumental stone gateway, stands in a vast empty plaza in Pyongyang with Soviet-style apartment buildings visible in the hazy distance
Visitors gather in a plaza beneath towering bronze statues of leaders in Pyongyang, with government buildings visible behind them
Large propaganda billboard with red and white design featuring a figure in military uniform, Korean text, and cityscape, lining a brick plaza in Pyongyang
Two large bronze statues of men stand on a platform above a crowd of tourists gathered beneath them in Pyongyang, North Korea
White vans and cars parked in a vast plaza in Pyongyang with propaganda billboards and high-rise buildings visible in the distance under a partly cloudy sky
Wide Pyongyang street lined with identical pink apartment blocks under clear sky, with a red propaganda billboard and bare trees flanking the empty road
A large Soviet-style building with a clock tower stands in Pyongyang as groups of people move across a sparse concrete plaza in front of it
Modernist cylindrical building with curved white facade and horizontal bands of windows set in a sparse red-earth landscape under pale blue sky with white clouds
A large red hammer and sickle symbol mounted on the roof of a pink stone building against a pale blue sky with white clouds in Pyongyang
A wide, empty paved road stretches toward the horizon with Soviet-style residential tower blocks lining both sides under a hazy sky in Pyongyang, North Korea
Solitary figure in turquoise coat standing on empty road beside propaganda billboard in sparse North Korean landscape with bare trees and hills
A sparse public square in Pyongyang with a tall monument structure, bare trees, and a vintage vehicle display, photographed through a bus window by Hélène Veilleux
Modernist building with curved turret roof and large window facade in Pyongyang, North Korea
A person walks across a wide paved plaza in front of a curved modernist building with horizontal striping in Pyongyang, North Korea
A grand Soviet-style government building with pink and cream facades, wide colonnades, portraits above the entrance and symmetrical flanking structures beneath a pale blue sky with white clouds
A wide public square in Pyongyang with a grand traditional Korean building in the centre, a bus and car on the street, apartment blocks on either side, and a cloudy sky above
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