Stéphan Gladieu's North Korea Photos at Musée des Confluences

The Musée des Confluences in Lyon presents an exhibition of Stéphan Gladieu's photographs taken in North Korea between 2017 and 2020. The French photographer, born in 1969, made five trips to the isolated dictatorship, always under strict surveillance with two guides and a driver. His frontal flash portraits, shot from five meters away, capture individuals in everyday settings—a supermarket, a rice paddy, an ophthalmology clinic, a shooting range, the central zoo. The images, with their saturated colors and symmetrical compositions, might appear staged or AI-generated, but Gladieu insists they are real. He subverts the visual codes of propaganda posters, restoring individuality to subjects often lost in the collective. One photo shows a woman in a floral tunic beside her husband in a dark vinalon suit at the Pyongyang zoo; Gladieu notes she could be encountered in France, Europe, or elsewhere in Asia. The exhibition runs from June 12, 2026 to January 2, 2028.