world's biggest flagpole Photo

Photographer’s Note

This is Kijong-dong a North Korean propaganda village in the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone). The village supposedly shows the superiority of the North, although it is thought that no one actually lives there. At some point the governments of North and South began competeing to erect increasingly taller flag poles to display their respective flags. The South eventually gave up, leaving the North the "winners" who can now boast the world's tallest supported flagpole at 160m (525 ft). The fabric alone weighs 600 pounds unfortunately it was not flying at the time.

I find this picture very peculiar. Apart from some level and contrast adjustments, cropping, and minor color saturation, I haven't done any post processing, yet it turned out like a communist propaganda painting. I wonder if the North has more secrets we don't know about :-)

The photo was taken from the Southern side of the DMZ but I thought it'd be appropriate to post it under North Korea.

Comments and critiques, as usual, are welcome.

mortijo, emercamaya, AmiBe, vascao, dmitriy55, kolesn, jmfarace, jiekuan, seoulwriter, eugeneahn, Facsi, noir, sheepyak, Rychach has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

AmiBe (6042) 2004-12-01 7:46 [Comment]

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vice5086 (51) 2004-12-05 2:00 [Comment]

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vascao (192) 2004-12-10 20:15

Yeah, maybe you're right and this is the tallest, but mine is the prettiest...;o)
Great shot, nice DOF, seems like a rocket about to launch.

jinju (14265) 2004-12-12 8:36

Theres a magazine that will give you a cool million dollars for a piece of the flag on that flagpole. I see that the flag is gone. I wonder if anyone cashed in.

weswang (18223) 2005-02-06 1:38

Very interesting photo and very interesting notes. The picture provides a very good view of the environment where the pole stands.

waluyo (38) 2005-02-07 10:02

first, thank you to visited my album and your encouragement.
I took the opportunity to have a look to yours...

I really like this picture, maybe not so much for the picture in itself but for the symbolic that it represents...

the foreground and the background are just amazing, even if the city doesn't appear alive... but maybe it is just the subject that makes that... can't help it!
anyway, this shot is superb!

etiennejr (1014) 2005-02-15 7:41

Hi Mark, Very nice story. For me the same but from a different border, the Chinese one. At the border of Dandong you can go on a boat and "look at the North Koreans". Strange but true. Here the same story as your house, there is a fareswheel, looks real but after zooming, you can see it is only 2D, just sheets of metal. All is an ilusion to the west. And I am sure these houses and the whole area are off limits to the N K people. Have a look at my shots and I'll post the faris wheel soon.
Good shot!

seoulwriter (94) 2005-06-15 7:36

Good shot on a clear day. The color contrasts are interesting, and the note was very useful.

TraneOne (2) 2005-11-20 21:41 [Comment]

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