President Kim Il Sung and devoted fans Photo

Photographer’s Note

This is the main statue of President Kim Il Sung in Pyongyang. He died in 1994 since when he has been Eternal President, which must save a lot of cost and effort with elections.

There were hundreds more citizens behind the group shown, waiting for their turn to place flowers and bow to the Great Leader. This seemed to be a very serious and sincere process. It was a national holiday period, hence the large number of admirers on that day (only a western cynic would think the beautiful weather brought them out....)

This photo won a competition in the UK's Guardian newspaper in Jan 2007 (am I allowed to boast here?!) - the theme was "Excess".

No cropping or post editing, but maybe there is a bit too much pavement in the foreground?

linask, peter1892, manub, rjb874 trouve(nt) cette note utile

Critiques | Translate

gbeli (2026) 2007-03-17 17:12

Hello Roger
Nice photo and perfect colors

peter1892 (3201) 2007-03-17 19:47

It's an impressive shot, and something that we don't get to see very often. The statue itself is incredible, so imposing. The display of devotion is remarkable too, from the people bowing before the statue to the flowers laid out at it's base. A great piece of photojournalism.

kabanoki (221) 2007-05-08 15:46

Feel free to boast; this is a great sci-fi image!

martin_b (362) 2009-08-11 8:46

hello roger,
very good photojournalistic work from one of the most remote places on earth- i feel very sad for the people of NK.......

regards martin