INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Image copyrightTariq ZaidiImage caption
A girl plays a cello at Chongnam Kindergarten, Chongjin, North Hamgyong
province
What is it like to grow up in North Korea When photographer Tariq Zaidi visited North Korea late last year he tried
to capture candid family moments between parents and children.I travelled to eight out of North Korea's nine provinces and along the way
visited schools, nurseries and music academies
Not many outsiders get a chance to visit the country and for those who do, taking pictures is highly restricted and controlled
These are images I was permitted to take by North Korean minders, and they offer a few glimpses into what it's like to grow up in the
closed-off and isolated country
My journey took me from Dandong on the Chinese border in the north down to Kaesong at the border with South Korea, across the country from
Pyongyang to Wonsan on the east coast and then north again towards Chongjin and Hoeryong near the Chinese-Russian border.While this
selection of images cannot claim to be comprehensive, I did get some sense of the cultural and social environment and aspirations for the
children we came into contact with
Whenever we went to a town, we tried to visit a school
There are many different kinds of schools in North Korea and a lot of the sightseeing outside of museums involved visiting municipal
Image copyrightTariq ZaidiImage caption
This young girl plays a traditional Korean drum at the Hoeryong Schoolchildren's
Palace
Image copyrightTariq ZaidiImage caption
Mothers play on a slide with their children in a central
Pyongyang playground
A lot of the students wanted to show off how well they spoke English and at some schools tourists were
encouraged to speak to their top students who spoke the best English about whatever we wanted
A lot of the conversation was general knowledge exchanges on any issue, for example The Beatles
It felt surprising because one would assume a frank exchange wouldn't be welcome but these environments felt open
At the same time, you realise you are in North Korea and this is the school we were taken to and a conversation in another part of the world
might go very differently.Image copyrightTariq ZaidiImage caption
A girl studying at the North Hamgyong province library
in Chongjin
Image copyrightTariq ZaidiImage caption
A mother and child walk around in Pyongyang
Some of the schools we were taken to see had mind bogglingly state-of-the-art facilities for the most talented students
We were told they were called schoolchildren's palaces
Obviously there will be many other kinds of schools, but we weren't taken to see them.The emphasis on sport, music, culture was really
A lot of students were eager to take on the tourists, to have serious competitive games of football and basketball, for example.But outside
of the official guided visits to set destinations, there were those journeys where I could capture candid and spontaneous shots: a father
cuddling his child on the metro, a mother playing with her children on a playground while I sped by on a bus
They didn't even know I was there.But moments like those help to illustrate an obvious but important point - that no matter what kind of
rule you find yourself under, families end up pretty much the same and children at school in North Korea have personal goals and ambitions
Image copyrightTariq ZaidiImage caption
A family rides the Pyongyang metro with portraits of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il
seen in the back
Image copyrightTariq ZaidiImage caption
A mother watches her child, who sits in the
basket of a bicycle in Kaesong
Image copyrightTariq ZaidiImage caption
Portrait of girl in traditional
dress in Hoeryong
Image copyrightTariq ZaidiImage caption
A 'moving image' wall of 17,490 schoolchildren
creating a mosaic at the Mass Games in Pyongyang
Image copyrightTariq ZaidiImage caption
A young school
girl, her mother and two women at the stamp museum in Pyongyang
Image copyrightTariq ZaidiImage caption
Dance class at the Mangyongdae schoolchildren's palace in Pyongyang
Image copyrightTariq ZaidiImage caption
Boys practice on the gymnastic parallel bars in their school playground in Hoeryong
Image copyrightTariq ZaidiImage
caption
This girl in a traditional dress plays the piano at Chongnam Kindergarten in Chongjin
Image
copyrightTariq ZaidiImage caption
A baby is looking out of a Pyongyang bus while her father holds her secure
Image copyrightTariq ZaidiImage caption
A teacher of English conducts class at the Chongjin Foreign Languages School
in Chongjin
Image copyrightTariq ZaidiImage caption
A girl checks her mobile phone while riding her
bicycle in the late evening in Kaesong
You can follow Tariq's work on Instagram (@tariqzaidiphoto), Facebook
(@tariqzaidiphotography) and his website httpss://www.tariqzaidi.com/
