A journey in 2010 brought me to the DPRK. Since years I had been toiling with the idea of going there. North Korea seemed to be the one place on earth where I could somehow re-experience some of the atmospheres and moods that I had as a memory from my childhood in former East Germany. The East had completely transformed while North Korea had been frozen in time since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

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Travelling in the DPRK is very restrictive and photography is largely limited to some selected sights and scenes. You travel under constant surveillance and every step you take needs permission and guidance. 

 Nevertheless I managed to capture at least some of the underlying atmosphere, daily street scenes, people and performances. I returned somewhat baffled, with mixed emotions and even more questions than I had before the trip. I got to understand their point of view and their perspective onto the rest of the world. Yet it remained a mystery, how a country can survive that long in this state of isolation, misinformation and desolate monotony.