Military muscles Photo

Photographer’s Note

The Arirang Festival (see yesterday’s note) is not all dance and gymnastics, it is also a display of North Korea’s military might – although for this event this is confined to participation by the army’s infantry divisions (I expect they would have liked some tanks in the show too, but I imagine that would make a mess of the grass in the May Day stadium). Rather than just posting another wide shot of the show, I cropped this one quite hard to include just a few hundred of the infantrymen marching across the stadium lunging forward with the bayonets on their rifles every second step. I expected the backdrop to read something quite provocative, but when I had it translated it came out to be something much more subdued, namely “Strong military with determination (or will)”. In this cropped shot you can see the individual flash cards that are held up by 20,000 schoolchildren to form the backdrop.

These days North Korea seems to have toned down its rhetoric a lot towards the US. I had read that in years gone by it was quite common to see posters urging soldiers to kill the American enemy, but the only time I came across that sort of rhetoric was when I asked a question about the number of people who were suffering from malnutrition in the country. The answer I got from one of my guides was “Our people do not care if they are starving. They will gladly give up a meal if they know the money can be used to make one more bullet to kill one more American imperialist and free our country from occupation”.

Despite its dire economic situation, North Korea spends more than US$5 billion a year on its military which I was told was “necessary” because “the American imperialists have 1,000 nuclear warheads pointed at us ready to destroy us if we show signs of weakness”.
The write-up on North Korea on the Global Security website includes this paragraph about the DPRK’s military: “The military continues to grow in both conventional and asymmetrical forces with increasing emphasis on the latter. The military provides deterrence, defense, and a massive offensive threat, as well as leverage in international negotiations. The army is much more than just a military organization; it is North Korea's largest employer, purchaser, and consumer, the central unifying structure in the country, and the source of power for the regime.”

I tried cropping this more at the bottom to create the impression of never-ending rows of soldiers, but didn’t like the look of the half bodies. So I cropped only on the left and right. I also sharpened this more than I did my other posting of the Arirang Festival given a few critiques that said it could have been sharper. That introduced a little more noise into this but it is not very visible. I chose this particular shot from a couple of dozen that I had of the military display because in this one nearly all the bayonets are catching the light. Apart from sharpening the only PP was a small adjustment to saturation.

dom_inik_m, AnneFrance, PixelTerror, ChrisJ, capthaddock, umbrellaphotos, devimeuxbe, annagrace, everlasting, Standring, emercamaya, fotostar, vincent24, pamastro, sarju, roconnell, L2K, benkrut, MLINES, rowanb, lappino, broglia, kajspice, Liekje, SampraS, maverik12, Clairedelune, Rinie_Hoff, rtome, rocketrouge, RPoole5552, srgabreu, sheepyak, kryger, greg, olivierduc, taypejka, Brian, happypoppeye, rajhema, touristdidi, yogi32 has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

gringofil (0) 2005-10-25 7:25

WOW...this is SO COOL! I will have to get down to North Korea myself...it looks like a whole different world! Anyway, lovely use of wide angle and the lines and repetitive patterns are great. What I like the most, though, is the propaganda poster in the back...it seems to be in synch with the soldiers on the field. You're really lucky to have captured something like this. Nice work!

dom_inik_m (1707) 2005-10-25 8:11

"Cool" is not the word I'd have used to describe your picture... for rows of soldiers with fixed bayonets are not a mere graphical gimmick to please the eye of a photographer!
Personally, I'd put this demonstration, aimed in its magnificence to awe and enthrall the crowds, in relation with other photos I briefly saw a few days ago on TE, about police forces arresting a few protesters dressed up as clowns somewhere in New Zealand...
Whatever the scale, the rhetoric (the recent (in)famous tagline about the "axis of evil") and the means of communication, human lust for power and control remains a neverending process.
Impressive sight, David!
By the way, what brought you to North Korea? ;-)

Kenny10pin (19301) 2005-10-25 9:55

wow, very good work here, I like the perspective and also the rows of them, very neatly set out, are they really military or just performers?

ALSOM (6616) 2005-10-25 10:03

I initially tought that was fake soldiers, you know small ones for kids.
This is a fantastic shot: they almost perfectly liing up creating same graphical pattern.

The propaganda screen should be a very large display!

Impressing events !
Thanks,
Al.

AnneFrance (921) 2005-10-25 11:03

picture is amazing, but agree with David, don't find it so 'cool'; it scared me more, the whole compo with the inscriptions and other military, was not imagine that we can see this in this century, and it's strange i don't know why, i cannot see their faces but they give a very angry impression, this by their mouvement all really together, it's that discipline that afraid me i think.....
but anyway, great shot!!!!!

leonorkuhn (13513) 2005-10-25 17:15

Hi David,
Very impressive shot! It is an image that cause fear. In the thumbnail the image did not seem real. But they are not lead soldiers. You took a great image.
Very good job!!
Leonor

kensimage (8539) 2005-10-25 18:10

David, it's as though they don't realize this sort of thing went out of style in 1989. It would be almost funny in that respect, if many million Koreans didn't have to live inside this world.

This is a nice sharp, well-exposed image. I actually it might be even better if you had gone ahead and cropped off the bare grass at bottom, even if that meant some half-soldiers, but it's fine as it is, too. Thanks for showing us this closed-off world. Regards, Ken.

designsoul (21394) 2005-10-25 20:26

An UNBELIEVABLE, frightening shot, David! You should touch it up and send it to TIME magazine, really... I am so amazed I can hardly breathe! (I had thought they were toy soldiers, but so many?...Kept looking...) We are looking at thousands of soldiers in the same position in a single shot! I am petrified at it... truly amazed. Fantastic juxtaposition with that disgusting Communist poster/mosaic...
Oh my God.
Still to recover!
Bravo!
Sarolta
(Oh so sorry am out of green monsters)

PixelTerror (86038) 2005-10-26 5:55

Hi David,
Another striking photo with a fascinating note, yes I admit our TE ladies can find it scary and frightening, indeed it is, but I'd rather see here a country forgotten by time, such big scale events with similar background posters were not uncommon a while ago in the former SSSR republics, fortunately a strong evolution has occured there (if it's good or bad is another story) but North Corea did not had the chance to get a leader willing to change things and everything remained frozen.
Keep them coming David, your North Corea series are one of the best things I've seen on TE lately !
Have a nice day,
Jean-Yves

rbcy1974 (20742) 2005-10-26 8:00

Hi David,
This is an amazing shot, by looking at it I cant stop from thinking of Orwell"s 1984. Its as if they are getting ready to fight against Eurasia. As another person said, the picture seems to have anger written all over.
Regards
Daniel

ktanska (16514) 2005-10-27 5:50

Another thing that comes to my mind from this is
Pink Floyd's The Wall, and I mean the movie.
Good composition with the commanding anoymous faces on the top right, mindless troops performing on the bottom.

jbweasle (9294) 2005-10-27 15:25

This is an awesome picture, David. So many soldiers all moving as one like some mighty machine. Probably better disciplined than any other army in the world. Would they ever be used in anger or is it enough just to have this awesome deterrent to stop an agressor. Is the army a force to be frightened of or just a comfort for a paranoid leader? Either way this secretive state is one to be wary of.

kinginexile (2440) 2005-10-28 1:27

sad! Your photo is so eloquent, until I read your note, I though these were miniature toy soldiers, and i am afraid that for all being in flesh, they are still pawns of insane puppet masters.

ChrisJ (70019) 2005-10-28 4:09

Hi David

A rarely seen view of Nth Korea. Tfs. Excellent repetition. They look like toy soldiers. The panoramic format suits perfectly. Good work!

capthaddock (28640) 2005-10-28 9:50

Hi David - scary, surreal something out of a history film...and morbidly comical. The crop is also nice highlighting the opera singing soldiers above and the giant cotton ear swab wielding little ones below.

umbrellaphotos (1901) 2005-10-28 12:13

Great shot, and a great note to accompany it. It's a quite frightening image. It's great to see images from North Korea, it's so rare that we see these images.

Brian

Stepan (27175) 2005-10-30 13:18

This is the power of the images !
We're back into cold war thanks to you...
So impressive.
Thanks for the sharing.
Stéphane

Roly (1958) 2005-10-31 21:11

An excellent, powerful image that has communism written all over it. It is a precious documentation of a sad and slightly ridiculous reality.

annagrace (2463) 2005-10-31 22:15

Frightening note, and even more frightening photo! I thought these were toy soldiers, even once I enlarged, it is amazing how precise they are...and even scarier that the schoolchildren are holding up the placards.

Thanks for sharing this interesting view of N. Korean culture.

Alli

everlasting (10898) 2005-11-01 10:47

i saw a reportage of this on the BBC recently, it must have been an incredible sight to actually be there. And how comes you were there? lucky you, I thought visas were almost non existent.
Very informative note, and frightening, but the picture is mind boggling. You did right to crop this and not try to get the entire scene it is much more dynanic to see all thoses soldiers. Not too mention the 20000 school children making the mosiac.
Very Orwellian.

Standring (595) 2005-11-01 15:52

David, an excellent shot, and the pose that you captured in the soldiers from your view point really makes a great photograph. They could all be running, and with the backdrop of the soldiers on the wall, makes this an excellent composition for me.

emercamaya (359) 2005-11-06 4:13

Wonderful! Very eerie, it reminds me of the novel 1984. You can see that a great effort was made to put up a great show of force, and it was conveyed frighteningly well in the photo. Good note as well.

flip89 (3345) 2005-11-09 11:45

Amazing capture, they look like toy soldiers because of their precise stance. Technically, this is a reason why you need to have wide angle lens with you in your camera bag. You never know when you will need one. Excellent body of work, David (I just discovered your work and I am salivating).

vincent24 (9038) 2005-11-12 12:06

Hi David,
I've just discover your serie in North Korea,very impressive!i thought the country was completly closed!this picture is meaningful,well composed,seems to be about 60 years old,but it's now!!09/2005,very good job,thanks for sharing..
vincent

pamastro (7213) 2005-11-13 22:00

This is certainly surprising to see this is no mock up on a small scale but an actual event. The cards being held in the background provide quite a powerful backdrop to the precision movements on the field. I can't spot a single person the slightest bit off. And having just watched something on Hitler's Germany on the television, there are many things so similar here. Large stadiums, mass events and so much propaganda and brainwashing. Certainly frightening to say the least. But graphically it does make a spectacle to behold and so is propaganda at its strongest, visually powerful and captivating. Nice job capturing this as you did David.

chaity (1539) 2005-11-16 4:34

Hi David, I try not to think about the notes. The color of this photo is striking and I am sure because your position in the place, the horizon is a bit slanding. Feel a bit uncomfortable looking at it.

sarju (5308) 2005-12-06 13:23

Hi David
your photos from North Korea are incredible.
I like the strenght and power that this photo portrays ... incredible symmetry in this photo ... wow
I also like your today's post as you have captured a good mood in it although it lacks the sharpness
but I wanted to take this photo to the very well deserved 50 ... so please accept my appreciation
thanks for the share and wonderful note
cheers .... sarju

maurazos (0) 2006-01-19 18:44

Really dramatic and threatening! I understand why South Korea and Japan are so afraid of North Korea. Regards.

rowanb (864) 2006-02-12 19:18

hi david
these photos of yours from north korea are fascinating, its a country that we know so little about and its good that we can get an insight into what it is like. i think this shot is the most powerful of yours, it is indeed a bit scary that we see something like this in the modern world. truly powerful stuff.
rowan

Dr_Nibbles (283) 2006-02-22 9:48

Amazing shot... threatening and aesthetic at once...

Clairedelune (4885) 2006-06-28 20:28

Oh my! I was sure at first sight that that was some toy soldiers. Then, I read your very interesting note. And yes, for me, a completely other world... Fascinating. But frightening too. Gives me cold in the back. Not that much the fact that they are soldiers. But more the fact that human beings can be so much alike when they decide to...
Thank you for this one!
Claire

Rinie_Hoff (9332) 2006-08-21 17:37

Hi David, I remembered this shot of you, and I have always been amazed about it. For a while I had been lookign at the picture without reading the note, and was almost sure they were plastic soldier. I reme,ber that that's what I thought too when you posted it and it's still hard to believe that it isn't true.
Great capture, and I have the idea that we're back in the cold war. I have always found these things really amazing.

rocketrouge (509) 2006-10-14 20:54

Wow that is an amazing photo. The most stunning I have seen in a long time. Congratuladion

kozak (711) 2006-12-01 6:02 [Comment]

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PeterDF (292) 2007-01-11 23:00

I think the most remarkable part of this photograph is the fact that not one of the cards being held up by the schoolchildren to form the backdrop is even slightly out of place. It's quite amazing to have that discipline to hold them so perfectly. Quite a compelling shot.

Voltri (1724) 2007-05-21 9:16

Davide, thanks for sharing these amazing photos from the Kingdom of Idiotism.
I am surprised that you were allowed to take photos! I read that Russian tourists were asked to leave cameras/mobile phones at a storage room in the airport.

rajhema (1863) 2007-06-11 18:15

What a spectacular and powerful picture. Shows the commitment.
Rajesh

sebinho342 (18734) 2007-08-25 15:50

One of the most amazing picture here on TE. I've seen it many times and for sure this is such a powerfull picture from such a remote and close country.
Tremendous, no other words, i wonder how the hell you where there at this particular moment but thanks a lot to share the result with us
... speachless

touristdidi (8561) 2007-09-20 14:45 [Comment]

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ckpark (10) 2007-10-28 18:50

And so in the Arirang Festival you see a nation mobilized, where the military and civil life knows no boundary. All unified in opposition to US Imperialism and worship of their dear leader. In a totalitarian society, the average bloke knows nothing else besides this totatlity.