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On the Spot with Kim Jong-il

boston.com

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Re: On the Spot with Kim Jong-il

#4
Some of those photos look photoshopped. In #10, his glasses are broken, whereas in others (14, 19) he looks very out of place. In many, his hat stand out particularly.

Re: On the Spot with Kim Jong-il

#5

I'm fascinated by North Korea. I think these pictures say a lot. The details are interesting... close-up shots, framed without showing much context. Practically everybody has a pad of paper. Intriguing stuff.

Yeah, it is very interesting. There is definitely a formula to these pictures. Very tidy environment, inspecting a line of product, a dozen people watching in the background, and the same damn coat in every shot.

What I really wonder is Kim Jong-il "in" on the staged-ness of these shots? Or does he just operate with a different perception of the world because things are always presented to him in such a tidy manner?

Re: On the Spot with Kim Jong-il

#6
post #4

Some of those photos look photoshopped. In #10, his glasses are broken, whereas in others (14, 19) he looks very out of place. In many, his hat stand out particularly.

I recall there were several techniques for photoshop detection. Let's bust them out?

Re: On the Spot with Kim Jong-il

#7
I posted this a few days ago but didn't get any attention:

A Year in Pyongyang: The fascinating account of a British guy who spent a year in North Korea working as a literary reviser for their totalitarian government http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1178719

I've started reading the book since then and it really paints a full and seemingly realistic picture of N Korea.

Re: On the Spot with Kim Jong-il

#8
post #6
post #4

Some of those photos look photoshopped. In #10, his glasses are broken, whereas in others (14, 19) he looks very out of place. In many, his hat stand out particularly.

I recall there were several techniques for photoshop detection. Let's bust them out?

Nothing too odd: http://i.imgur.com/INgMn.jpg

Re: On the Spot with Kim Jong-il

#9
post #5

I'm fascinated by North Korea. I think these pictures say a lot. The details are interesting... close-up shots, framed without showing much context. Practically everybody has a pad of paper. Intriguing stuff.

Yeah, it is very interesting. There is definitely a formula to these pictures. Very tidy environment, inspecting a line of product, a dozen people watching in the background, and the same damn coat in every shot. What I really wonder is Kim Jong-il "in" on the staged-ness of these shots? Or does he just operate with a different perception of the world because things are always presented to him in such a tidy manner?

I'm sure if you zoomed out you would see a whole lot of nothing. No more than a handful more cows or pigs or shoes or cookies that are in the shots we see here. NK is just a big vacant husk of a nation.

He has to be aware of that, at least.

Re: On the Spot with Kim Jong-il

#10
Lest we be too proud of our ability to detect the forced, artificial nature of these photographs, this link from the 'Big Picture' comment thread should be considered:

http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2010/02/obama_being_forced_to_l...

(Our photo op rituals aren't that much better. US photographers show a lot more creativity in composition, though.)

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