North Korea in 3D: See Rare Photos of People in the Secret State | Short Film Showcase

[Music] In early 2014, Choreo Studio invited Slovenian photographer Mathias Tan Church to undertake a 3D photography project in North Korea, inspired in part by the country's own fondness for 3D photography to produce keepsake postcards and public art. Accompanied by Korea's cultural engagement producer Viki Mohideen, plus two North Korean guides, Mr. Kang and Mrs. Kim, the team were granted rare permission to photograph people living and working in different cities, towns, and rural communities. They covered over 800 kilometers in this groundbreaking project, traveling from showcase capital Pyongyang to Kaesong in the south and as far north as the little-visited industrial city of Ham Hyung.

Introducing the process of 3D photography to those they encountered, Mathias reflected, "It's like a stage, you know? Everything there looks like a movie set or like a theater set, and then when you put in this set also a North Korean person with their traditional, in this context called, costume or their typical clothes, it just definitely looks like a still from a movie. And without 3D glasses, it looks just as a normal photo, but when you put on 3D glasses, you can almost look around them; you can discover the image and deconstruct it—a deeper look into North Korean society."

"So we brought this forgotten technology; we brought it back to North Korea, and made a new material. Come on, this worker, he looks spectacular—so tall and proud and beautiful, such as a rough and hard 13-hi-man." [Music] "This noise is just overpowering. You've got the clanking and clanging, and as with all factories, they have a little unsafe van to clear. Evolutionary music." [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

"And it keeps saying hope, go more away, go more away! And it was like, come on guys, what can happen? It's just a furnace!" [Music] "I think it's really striking. I think it's beautifully lit. I just think it's a beautiful image." [Music] "It's a combination of what I wanted and what is real and what is staged. I will definitely remember this shot forever." [Music]

"This was a gorgeous day; this was a beautiful moment for us. We went to two cooperative farms, traveled very far to get here—three hours to one sun and then another two or three hours to Hammer Home in a tiny little van. It's quite a stir in part of the country. I want to show to the West that no matter what they hear about it, it's a country with normal people that live normal lives. There is no other way, no better way to show it than through true portraits."

"It was one of those few moments from a tea. Ashley was able to stop somebody quite naturally, who wasn't presented to us as one of the few people that we related to take the photograph of; she struck me so much as a lady that works on a farm. I just wants to go on with her work. She wasn't starstruck or suspicious or any of those things that you associate with taking pictures in North Korea. She was just like, well, okay."

"People often talk about how North Koreans want to show us a certain side of the country, and they're trying to display some sort of false idea of the country. It's certainly true that they only show you the very best that they have, but you can look at this photograph and see the very best farm that they have. They are planting rice by hand, and they are using animals to transport things and to plough the fields. The thing is, in North Korea, no matter if it's staged or if it's not staged, it's real in that place at that time."

"Since I want to have a pretty unified look and feel on the photo, I decided that I'm gonna keep using flash. To achieve that, I need an assistant you can focus on looking at the people in the situation; you know that the technical part is gonna work. I was up to my knees in the mud and can his leather black shoes and long, long pants; he was basically hanging from the edge, holding the lights, you know, as close as was humanly possible for him."

"[Music] Amazing assistant because he completely got it. He understood which flash to take, where to stand, and then we, you know, we start moving. We had a chance for natural discussion and jokes and engagement, and it didn't feel like we were part of this orchestrated project in North Korea. I felt like we were urbanites on a farm taking photographs of these people and their animals, and they thought we were idiots."

"[Music] In order to really have school children's palaces and their extracurricular activities, the kids are for their after-school. This is one of the few retro ones; that's like, I think one to a year ago, the music was actually amazing. The first song—I just want another song, kin another song, I get response." [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

"Everything about this room is very DPRK. It's a perfect shot with this piano in the back, red plastic three flops, portraits of the leaders, not to mention the seriously—there's that rare moment of actual truth. She's literally looking at the camera, and she's engaging with the audience through the photograph. I don't think she was that happy or comfortable, and I think it shows. I think that's great."

"Something that we would consider the easiest or the most common was the hardest for me. A logical step to represent North Korea was also to shoot someone with the bicycle, but when I mentioned this, it was like quite a big no, or like, no—this doesn't look, you know, too developed. Oh, what about that biker? What about that biker? It was just no, no, no, no! It's like having two artists that you're working with. On the one side, you've got the artists themselves, and then on the other side, you’ve got this very specific country that works with a very specific kind of rules that won't be budged on. Certain things can't just grab someone and say, let's take a picture."

"I spoke to him about how he'd done it in the south of China, and I was like, there just simply won't happen. Then we came to this big fertilizer factory. All the workers kept bikes—real transport—and especially in front of this beautifully painted poster. Of course, I was happy, because it was another small victory for me. It's one of my favorite places to go because the soldier guides are sweet, and they have a certain confidence and swagger. Despite the fact that I was officially on a trip as a photographer, it was quite a struggle."

"Why this person? We're also a little bit of unease outside of that soldier. Can I take? I usually had only 40 seconds for a person, which is nothing, especially when you really try to do a great portrait—which means good location, good light, good pose, you know, good look in the eyes or expression of the people. I had even less time because they were really reluctant to take photos. But on the other side, that was really lucky because there was this window in the place with the amazing natural light."

"This is exactly what you would expect to see. This is a soldier—he's looking very stern. Kang comes up to him and is saying, 'Look, you can't move.' As soon as the photograph rolls, 'Don't move,' because he'll take more pictures, and he looks so nervous and so giggly. Then as soon as it's like, right, we're taking a picture, his face transforms. I just placed him in front of the window, did a quick test, and a couple of seconds later, he was already gone."

"This picture of the women in the foodstuffs factory in Pyong Song is just beautiful. Vicky told me, 'Oh, that's the first time I actually see them work.' I guess usually, they did not have electricity. When there is no electricity, they change their clothes and go out on the field and grow the corn. When the corn is ready, they harvest it, and they use the corn to make these cookies. They had also some noodles and also some strong liquor—everything made out of the corn or the wheat that they produce themselves on the fields."

"They kept giving us tons of those biscuits, and then, well, Matty Ash and Kang were taking photos of people, and Oak Seok and I were in the background just getting out of the short—you know, just chomping biscuits. Anyway, nice biscuits! We went into another room to take a picture of the guy with the cold noodle machine, and while we were in the room, the noodles came out with a gap in the ceiling, and they went back up again. Again, it was really photogenic place for me—good light, interesting machines. I think this is very authentic; this is what a biscuit factory in DPRK is like. It was just a photo waiting to happen."

[Music] [Applause]

"The Roman soldier, let's stop. We decided to put Ham Hyung on the itinerary because we really wanted to do something different with this project that hadn't been done before. When Nik and I discussed it, certain people in the tour's department were like, 'Really? You're going to Ham Hyung? You're not gonna be able to take any pictures there because you can't— even the tourists can't, so how are you gonna take a professional photographer there? It's even worse.' So we were like, 'We need to try! We need to try and push the envelope!'

"And there's no point as just going in and doing the same projects. We have to try and further. We're just entering security—it's a world—yeah, we had to go through this game. Everywhere we went, when if we went to a steel factory, first you go to a museum you're interested in, you go to two different floors, and you're like nodding and smiling and asking questions, but inside of you, you're like just mm-hmm. Let's go. Let's move. Let's, you know, skip the museum; let's go to the factory; let's shoot.

"So sometimes I lost a bit of temper and was like, 'Yeah, let's go!' And he would always be compromised, either to push through Viki to go as fast as possible or to try to explain to your guides that I really want people. So that was also one of the clashes we had. You were really not interested in museums; you just wanted to shoot people, which for them was so hard to understand and disappointing. I really saw disappointment in their eyes, and for me, it was like, 'Hell yeah, I mean, I really don't want all the museums; I'm just here for the people! So just.' It was always how to communicate this as nicely as possible, which was really difficult. But hence, the amazing team. Viki was outstanding. Really, without her, it would not be possible to this extent."

"And you squeeze it, and you can make really horrible things. By the end of the trip, they were like, 'Yes, we know Mateus, what you want.' So that's why we arranged it. Out of the four floors of the museum, we're gonna see only two, and they also, you know, tried to push and get us whatever we want, even if it was a bit, uh, nice for them. So it was the same in this photo in the university we went to.

"Missy and we went to everything, and they were like, I was like, 'So can we shoot one of the students?' They were like, 'No, no, look, it's a beautiful student. Can we shoot it?' You know, like, okay, you know, let's sure that, you know. And in the end, we got this shot. The light was one of the best lights possible—3D effect, it's amazing, beautiful subject in an okay environment, but the beautiful light, which, you know, does all the magic. It was spent being there an hour being a little bit of a pain in the ass, and he was so nervous, as I recall, very, very nervous—the idea of having his photograph taken. We were probably amongst the first foreigners he'd ever made, and he just looks so composed and fabulous, and the light is so beautiful. This porthole's concrete buildings, great architecture."

"My plan was definitely to get at least into some of the houses and get some photos of sportsmen there, and this was a lonely, difficult day because we went to the maternity hospital before we came here, and I always find shooting those hospitals really, really uncomfortable. It was just a very difficult day, and that just kept going through what he thought was the absolute best photographing. And that's the thing about photographers is that sometimes it can be the uncomfortable thing about them and something awful thing about them is that they wanted the best photograph." [Applause]

"Since there was a big statue in front of the hall with a guy flying through the air with extended hands and legs, I was like, 'Well, let's see if you can do this.' I had to use the flash because it was really dark, and I saw there, it casts an interesting shadow. Perfect! Adjustments and angles, we took advantage of the shadow to make the photo even more interesting."

[Music] "He wouldn't stop until he had absolutely the perfect photograph! 'Okay, you can check, and if he's happy, then we finish; otherwise, he repeats.' I show the photo to him; I was like, 'Look, it's good, but I think you could, you know, do to be better if you show this to the professor. Is he gonna say good jump or better room?' I'm serious. Not to shame—not ah, sorry she's alone! And then he ran, and he jumped in; he did this perfect."

[Music] [Music]