In the picture with Yannis Kontos – Red Utopia: Photographs from North Korea

Yannis Kontos spent 17 days photographing North Korea, a country that remains out-of-bounds to journalists and reporters. Only a handful of westerners visit this totalitarian state each year and the story of its inhabitants is frequently hidden from the world by strict media censorship.

Using a variety of methods to avoid attention from his minders, Kontos shot his images using non-professional cameras and downloaded them secretly to an mp3 player during the night. His photos escaped the censors and shed light on what life is really like behind the scenes of this hardline regime.

Yannis will show a number of his photographs and talk about the difficulties of shooting freely under such tight controls. He will also give a visual insight into the people and culture of North Korea, a country which the world watches with increasing apprehension.

‘From the very first moment I arrived in North Korea I had the strong feeling that I was watching a huge performance and that all the controlled citizens I saw were part of it.’ – Yannis Kontos