I recently had a chance to shoot for Marie Claire Australia here in Seoul. This story was published this Month (May) about an unlikely popular TV show here called Now on my Way to Meet You, featuring glamorous North Korean defectors. So much news on North Korea centers on politics and security, it’s easy to forget that North Korea’s society eerily resembles Orwell’s creepy social vision in 1984. This show is awesome because it introduces South Koreans to North Koreans in a real, tangible way. After 60 years of separation South Korea seems to have forgotten that the North is part of Korea. Technically South Korea still claims sovereignty over the North, but very few South Koreans hope for reunification. Some do, but almost no one wants to pay for it.
If you’re also looking for more stories of normal North Koreans, I highly recommend Barbara Demick’s Nothing to Envy.
We also got lucky because we went on a day featuring mini Psy. I’ve forgotten his name already, Kang Min Ho I think. Anyhow, it was super easy, a lot of fun, and the women were beautiful. Story is written by Leslie Patrick. The article isn’t up on the web yet, but I’ll update this post when it is.
By the way, I have no idea what’s up with the terrible photoshop job on this front cover. I liked the photo as it was originally, shown below. I guess Marie Claire didn’t.
Me with Mini Psy!!
Interpreter John Kim, and writer Leslie Patrick.
This kid loves the camera.
[…] While the television show itself undoubtedly provides the platform for storytelling, the ability for the stories to be shared online gives powerful support to the heartfelt appeals of those featured on the show. Indeed Russo and Watkins in their article Digital Cultural Communication: Enabling new media and co-creation in South East Asia discuss how ‘convergent information and communication technology has promised the delivery of multi channel, multi-platform content where choice is in the hands of the consumer’ (Russo and Watkins, 2005). This describes a shifting of consumption patterns and empowers audiences by enabling access to content on their own terms. There are sites that allow you to download and/or stream episodes, such as Hanbeat and a number of episodes on YouTube that can be viewed (though most are entirely in Korean). In addition, the ‘Now On my Way To Meet You’ cast have been catapulted into the blogosphere: here voted number one in the ’10 Most Amazing North Korean Defectors’, and here in a Marie Claire Australia photo shoot. […]