Subway Attendant, Pyongyang, North Korea, 2007

Photo by Tomas van Houtryve / VII. Subway Attendant, Pyongyang, North Korea, 2007.

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From the photographer: “The idea that ‘life imitates art’ takes on a whole new meaning in North Korea, where the only art on public display is government-approved propaganda. That’s why I remain fascinated by the interplay between the metro attendant and the peasant farmer that she mirrors in the mosaic on the station wall. I visited North Korea twice, and both times it felt like I had landed on another planet — a place where every rule shy of the law of gravity had been remolded to the tastes of the ruling Kim dynasty.”