Young musicians - 1 Photo

Photographer’s Note

The Mangyongdae Schoolchildren's Palace in Pyongyang is an imposing building with a grand marble foyer (and a large model of the space shuttle in the foyer bearing North Korean insignia and flags!) with hundreds of classrooms where 5,000 talented children receive private lessons every day from 700 teachers in everything from music, art, science, computers and sports (there is even an Olympic size indoor swimming pool inside the Children’s Palace with full-size diving boards).

I took this photograph in one of the classrooms where children were being taught how to play a traditional Korean musical instrument called the 'kayagum'. The kayagum is a movable-bridge 13-string zither similar to but larger than the basic Chinese zheng. The teachers are predominantly female and all wear traditional Korean dress (somewhat of a contrast to the casual dress that teachers wear in western countries these days, I thought).

I have read accounts of visits to the Children’s Palace where the writers talk about the ‘fake smiles’ that the children have practiced for foreign visitors, but they didn’t look fake to me. The children seemed to be genuinely happy, and very healthy and well dressed, but of course these are privileged children. Only people who are trusted members of the Workers Party are able to live in Pyongyang, and out of those there is no doubt some system for selecting those who will be fortunate enough to be allowed to send their children to the Children’s Palace – but as privileged as these kids may be, there is no denying that the Children’s Palace is nurturing some amazing talent.

I took two photographs in this classroom (as well as many others in other classrooms) and I wasn’t sure which one to post, so I have posted the other one as a workshop.

Usual PP: cropped, adjusted levels, contrast, saturation and USM.

AmiBe, jbweasle, Roly, PJE, bibiweb, PeterC, pamastro, L2K, JohnTurton, digi-mom, sheepyak has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

gaby (19793) 2005-10-30 5:36

Hi David - Thanks for these splendid daily life scenes from Noth Korea - very interesting - I prefer the WS for the smiles and for the superb compo of this WS -
Technical quality is hight -
Have a nice sunday
Thanks
Gaby

Kenny10pin (19301) 2005-10-30 7:55

very good shot here, I like the uniform and the rows of these young girls, however it doesnt look like a daily shot though, it looks like a display set for foreign people to see how talented and rich they are, however alot of us know that alot of the people in North Korea are not rich and are infact very poor.

kensimage (8539) 2005-10-30 11:01

I guess we could put this under a TE subcategory "Daily life for families of the well-connected." I don't doubt that the smiles are genuine--why should these priveleged kids be unhappy, when they aren't old enough to understand how the system really works? Thanks for showing this aspect of life there--as long as we don't take it as typical, it's very revealing. Nice composition, too, David, showing the right number of kids, at a sort of decisive moment where the teacher's pose is just right. Regards, Ken.

AmiBe (6042) 2005-10-30 16:02

Hi David,
you serie is very interesting, thank's to share it.
All have the same position, same uniform... They're like clones.
North Korea is a big laboratory making clones maybe... like the soldiers in your previous pictures.

ArtLook (2332) 2005-10-31 13:11

Hi David,
Good shot. This uniform and poses reminds me my childhood. When I was young and studied at school - it was Soviet times (USSR). We have to wear almost the same uniform (the style was very close). Thank you for sharing!
With BEST reagrds,
Arthur

jbweasle (9294) 2005-10-31 14:28

David, another excellent shot from North Korea. This picture asks the question that I asked myself many times when I was in the country. How much of this is real and how much is for show? I don't think we will ever know the answer.

PJE (19357) 2005-10-31 22:54

This is like a eyeopener to another world in music. I see the lovely costumes and smiling faces showing their love for this class. A very good high quality photo!

bibiweb (8) 2005-11-01 15:39

Hi David,
Thanks for this daily life picture and the interesting note. This instrument looks quite complicated and it's so huge compared to these little girls! I like this picture because it gives us a global view of the classroom and the students. Ths WS is a more intimate version and is quite complementary!
Regards, Brigitte

richtersl (3544) 2005-11-01 19:11

I love both photos! The children look genuinely happy. This is a nice "action" shot showing a wonderful interaction between teacher and pupil.

Mingfang (1415) 2005-11-02 9:33

Hi David, this is my first time to see the pic of Noth korea in TE. I think i like the WS a lot, but it is a pity that is cropped. i am also wondering why you didn't close them to catch a portrait of them and zoom the kids' smiling and the teacher's unsmiling to us. maybe you are banned to close them either.

Actually I am very sad for these kids' smiling. I don't doubt their talent, but their talent for what? one day when they could serve for this country, who could sure they could not do the same thing to the more young generation?

PeterC (2242) 2005-11-03 12:32

David,
Both photos are excellent. Super compostion and the contrasting colours of he school unifomrm and the pink hanbok (traditional dress).Another excellent daily life shot of NK.
Peter

oochappan (22026) 2005-11-04 6:22

Hi David
I compared with the WS and this is a good choice, the other has a better compo but here all the pupils and the teacher are acting very natural like you were not there. This instrument has always intriged me.

chaity (1539) 2005-11-16 4:45

Hi David, I wouldn't doubt their smile as they are the privileged bunch. What is more fake to me is the "stage" used in this photo.
I prefer this shot than the one in the workshop.

faubry (32197) 2005-12-08 5:38

very nice group portrait, these children are lucky! wa have seen ths last week a documentaire moovie on the north Corea!! can you visit the country? now it's possible for tourist trip but they can(t decide where or what they want to visit!
thanks
francine

sergio1 (12150) 2006-06-08 4:25

Hi David
great work and original instrument. I like the details and sharp. The expossed is very nice too.
Regards
Sergio

miscaro (146) 2008-04-09 4:24