DPRK 001, Li Min Gyong, Pyongyang Schoolchildren’s Palace, North Korea, 2006

The work of California-based Japanese photographer, Hiroshi Watanabe, captures cultures, traditions, and the people who hold them. His work stays faithful to its subject, acting as a record for preservation. In his 2006-2007 series Ideology in Paradise, Watanabe documented his travels to North Korea in an attempt to investigate commonly held beliefs about the country. The series resulted in a book of the same name, and Watanabe’s work from North Korea won him first prize at the 2008 Santa Fe Center Project Competition. Another print of Li Min Gyong, Pyongyang Schoolchildren’s Palace, North Korea resides in the institutional collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.