THESE PICTURES WERE taken during two visits to North Korea’s Mass Games in 2007. Held in the Rungrado May Day Stadium in the capital Pyongyang, the Mass Games is a choreographed propaganda spectacle incorporating the performances of up to 100,000 gymnasts, athletes, martial artists and dancers. Since 2002, the Korean folk tale Arirang — a story of separated lovers, used as a metaphor for the divided peninsula — has been a regular visual theme. ◉
Photos from this set were published in Time, Columbia Journalism Review, Globe & Mail, The Australian, Boston Phoenix, Southeast Asia Globe and The Correspondent, among others.
