Telling the Stories of Defectors From North Korea – The New York Times

Telling the Stories of Defectors From North Korea

The photographer Tim Franco explores the stories of North Korean defectors in a new portrait series called “Unperson.”

Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/02/lens/telling-the-stories-of-defectors-from-north-korea.html

It was this disordered transition that Tim Franco, a photographer who splits his time between South Korea and China, decided to explore in a new portrait series called “Unperson.” A riff on an Orwellian construct from the novel “1984,” his work examines the “vaporization” of the defectors’ past, which has left many in limbo, free but incomplete. “[North Korea] is their home, they left people behind,” Mr. Franco said. “Even if they live in a modern country, they will never be completely happy in South Korea.”