Wong Maye-E and Carl De Keyzer Document North Korea Through Photography

The American University Museum in Washington, D.C., has opened an exhibition featuring 60 prints by Belgian Magnum photographer Carl De Keyzer (born 1958 in Courtrai) alongside works by Associated Press photographer Wong Maye-E (born 1980 in Singapore). The show, on view until August 13, documents a seven-week trip De Keyzer made to North Korea in 2015 and is the final installment of a trilogy curated by museum director Jack Rasmussen, who previously organized the first exhibition of contemporary North Korean socialist realism in America in collaboration with expert B.G. Muhn. Wong Maye-E, who first entered North Korea in 2013 and is one of the few foreign journalists allowed regular access, began an independent photographic project three years ago capturing portraits of ordinary people on the streets of Pyongyang, asking about their dreams and priorities. Responses are predictably politically correct, with most expressing desires to work hard or excel in sports to please leader Kim Jong Un, or to have many children to enlist in the army. Despite restrictions—journalists cannot move freely and must be patient—Wong's project holds historical value, symbolizing a tentative opening. The Associated Press is the only news agency with a permanent office in Pyongyang, established in 2012. The exhibition also includes images from Cuba.