List Price: $95.00 Details

Save: $65.05 (68%)

FREE Returns

FREE delivery Thursday, October 13

Only 1 left in stock - order soon.

[{"displayPrice":"$29.95","priceAmount":29.95,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"29","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"95","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"08ogC9%2BHN4Jy%2BaZOcP%2BQYXmYmkgFcKAf%2FD7fhYYxn0ouYMLD20wv8%2F0%2BPqhJIxAw2FnK2q1BsaYJ8HL710KMtMCp41bnVtwVsIJlXt3WQBkAEYtx9fH3y0QymBj62e1NVzYJIp0tf6p%2B%2BVPsC8xHqzUs%2B9FYpXaSxNCqixSw5PCipovQkIROFA%3D%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW"},{"displayPrice":"$12.50","priceAmount":12.50,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"12","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"50","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"gnaabnEcKD3r%2FbZ1T8cGPxe6fYXp7zr%2Bql2uj6mGDfq0CM%2FO30BQWM6wRvInF8LCttuZkAmyueo3vGjfriliK%2FKkFwDtmYahqoBg3%2BqlaLW1gjg0maZZmg5T%2BCYxNKR%2Fx6%2FFZ63YxH%2BcX5yNkJgebtlN5y7ccFGVUAd4OL22X8ma7962WeHOqkUofgtvu5hw","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED"}]

$$29.95 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details

Secure transaction

Ships from

Amazon

Sold by

Hemenway House

Details

Ships from

Amazon

Sold by

Hemenway House

Return policy: Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt

Add a gift receipt for easy returns

$3.99 delivery October 14 - 17. Details

Select delivery location

Pre-owned: Good | Details

Sold by Half Price Books Inc

Share

Have one to sell?

Sell on Amazon

Other Sellers on Amazon

Added

Not added

$28.80
+ $5.18 shipping

Sold by: Everlasting Dream

Added

Not added

$34.00
& FREE Shipping. Details

Sold by: OrangeandBlueBooks

Flip to back Flip to front

Listen Playing... Paused You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more

See all 7 images

Follow the Author

Julia Leeb

North Korea: Anonymous Country Hardcover – September 15, 2014

by Julia Leeb (Photographer), JR and Niko Karasek (Foreword)

20 ratings

See all formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Hardcover

"Please retry"

$29.95

$28.80

$12.50

Hardcover
$29.95

8 Used from $12.50 9 New from $28.80 4 Collectible from $75.00

Enhance your purchase

North Korea certainly wouldn't come first on a general list of dream destinations. Nevertheless, the country exudes an eerie fascination. It's a mystery, an anonymous country isolated from the rest of the world. With two friends, German photojournalist Julia Leeb made a journey to better understand the country and its people. The result is a spectacular illustrated volume that offers a riveting look at its architecture, culture, and society. Readers get to immerse themselves in an unknown world. We witness celebrations for the 100th birthday of the country's founder, Kim Il Sung, and follow hundreds of North Koreans as they participate in an Arirang (Korean folk song) synchronized dance spectacle. But even the "quieter" impressions evoke emotion in the viewer: an excited bride, a mother with child--everyday scenes that are somehow quite different. These multi-layered images linger in the memory long afterwards, even when you have already put the book aside.

Print length

224 pages
Language

English
Publisher

teNeues
Publication date

September 15, 2014
Dimensions

10.5 x 1 x 12.75 inches
ISBN-10

3832798439
ISBN-13

978-3832798437
See all details

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ teNeues; Multilingual edition (September 15, 2014)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 224 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 3832798439
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-3832798437
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 10.5 x 1 x 12.75 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,841,368 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #16 in North Korea Travel Guides
- #82 in General South Korea Travel Guides
- #681 in Photojournalism (Books)

Customer Reviews:
20 ratings

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Julia Leeb

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Julia Leeb is a photojournalist and filmmaker. The emphasis of her work is on regions in political upheaval. She has done long-term projects in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Egypt, Syria, Libya, Afghanistan, Sudan, and Iran. Her report on women living under the rule of a warlord in the jungle of the DRC was nominated for the Peter Scholl-Latour award.

Leeb´s pictures from war-torn countries are published worldwide. Her footage from Libya caused a stir when she and her team were bombarded by Gaddafis’s troops.

Leeb studied International Relations and Diplomacy in Madrid. After graduation, she worked for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Italy in Rome. In order to deepen her nowledge about the Middle East she moved to Egypt studying Arabic and doing research at the Institute for Peace Studies.

Strongly believing in the increasing power of pictures and their capacity to explain complex political situations in a comprehensible way, Ms. Leeb returned to Germany where she graduated from the media academy BAF in Munich. Since then she has worked as a war reporter focusing on the revolutions and wars in the Arab world. Later she extended her geographical reach and published the book “North Korea – Anonymous Country“ which was featured on National Public Radio, The Wall Street Journal and other renowned international publications. In Germany the book was nominated for the national Photo Book Award.

Elle' magazine listed Leeb as one of the top 80 international characters and ' Refinery 29' named her as one of the most inspiring women in Germany.

Customer reviews

5 star		77%
4 star		8%
3 star		12%
2 star 0% (0%)		0%
1 star		4%

How customer reviews and ratings work

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Clark Frailey

A gift for those interested in North Korea.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 2, 2014

Verified Purchase

This is an amazing work. I heard about it on NPR and pre-ordered the book. I am fascinated by NK, its leadership, philosophy, and culture. I am confounded by the horrific stories of the few that have escaped the grasp of its prison camps. I pray daily for the people of NK, their liberation, and peace in the region.

Leeb has done an amazing service for us. This book is more than a glimpse into North Korea. It captures the heart and soul of the people. As I admire their architecture, cities, and geography I look deep into the eyes of Leeb's subjects. I ponder if they are curious about life of the outside of NK as much as I am curious about their life on the inside.

I have read so much on NK I thought at first to mention that the narrative is light comparably in this work. However as I have returned to the pages day after day I am haunted by a narrative in photography that words cannot match.

This book is a treasure.

7 people found this helpful

Helpful

Al Steer

A beautiful book HOWEVER

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 29, 2014

Verified Purchase

A beautiful book HOWEVER.......the ink gave off such strong vapors that it gave me a headache.
If you purchase this item, let it air out for a few days before perusing the photos.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 4, 2015

Verified Purchase

we could see more photos of inside people's houses.

Helpful

Douglas Skillins

Fascinating peek into a hidden place

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 1, 2014

Verified Purchase

The pictures are great. So is the introductory essay telling the story of the trip.

Helpful

Boris

Terribly average images built on lies (and no, I don't work for the NK government!)

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 21, 2015

I really don't enjoy writing nasty reviews, but this book REALLY deserves it. Where do I start?

I suppose the images are the best starting point. What you have here (with perhaps five exceptions out of 100+ frames) is a tedious series that feeds into every cliché we already know about NK. Take my word for it, you have seen almost all these pictures in one form or otherbefore, and there is nothing, NOTHING new or revealing in this selection. There are photos of monumental architecture, duly shot by every tourist who goes there, far too many photos of an evening spent at mass games (casting no new light on them and already thoroughly documented by umpteen photographers before her,) and photos purporting to be of 'daily life', which show us nothing of daily life in NK whatsover - in actual fact what they do show is a bit of Pyongyang.

Most importantly, there are almost no photos of locals, much less a portrait, and very, very little that hints at the humanity of your average North Korean (which, contrary to popular perceptions, certainly exists) On those extremely rare occasions when there is a frame of a local, she writes in the caption that the image was taken at great risk to herself, which is utter rubbish. Even worse, there is simply no visual language to this collection. I have no sense of Leeb's personality at all, no sense of subtext, no sense of humour, nothing. They are tourist snapshots, no more no less.

And I am coming from some experience, having been all over North Korea quite a number of times. On that basis I have the advantage of being able to identify every single location where Leeb's pictures were taken, namely, Pyongyang (the vast majority), Nampo (not many), Sariwon (not many) and Kaesong/the DMZ. Apparently she went to Mt Myohang as well, which is likely since it is on most standard tours. The point, however, is that loftily calling a book that consists almost entirely of Pyongang images 'North Korea' is like taking photos of New York and calling the book 'America'. It's laughable.

Now, if you look at a map of NK, you will quickly establish that based on the book's images Leeb visited but the tiniest part of the country, and limited herself to the basic cookie-cutter tour (tours are compulsory there). There is nothing from provincial NK proper, much less from further-flung regions where travel is considerably more gruelling than the little circle she undertook.

And why do I harp on about this? Well, she states in her essay at the beginning that she and the two people with her spent 'several weeks' in NK, and she has said elsewhere that she travelled 3000 km within the country. Well based on her images in this book there is nothing whatsoever to support this. There is no way she spent several weeks doing the standard five day tour, nor is there any way that she somehow clocked up thousands of kilometres doing a loop that covers a few hundred. She is at pains in her introductory text to depict herself as a courageous freedom-fighter, yet the reality is something rather more insipid I'm afraid.

So she is having us on. This is the emperor's new clothes of 'photojournalism' (as she calls it), preying on the general ignorance of the buying public about NK. I find this somewhat ironic I have to say, since the end result is that she is equally as guilty of spinning lies to her buyers as the regime she wants to criticise.

Anyway, I could go on about this at length (indeed I already have). My advice: do not fall for this fraud. If you want to see pictures of NK, just type it into Google images, or better still look up David Guttenfelder or Eric Lafforgue. Just steer clear of this book, which should never have hit the shelves (shame on you TeNeues!)

7 people found this helpful

Helpful

Philipp Kist

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 26, 2014

Fantastic inside to North Korea!

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English

S. Wild

Tolles Buch einer unbekannten Welt!

Reviewed in Germany 🇩🇪 on October 6, 2014

Verified Purchase

Ich liebe es zu Reisen aber eine Reise nach Nordkorea war mir bis jetzt verwehrt - nun konnte ich aber durch dieses tolle Buch einen Einblick in ein Land gewinnen, dass ich mir komplett anders vorgestellt hatte!
Nicht nur Grau und Trist scheint dieses unbekannte Land zu sein, die Photographin hat Momente mit Ihrer Kamera eingefangen, die ich so nie in Nord Korea erwartet hätte. Monumental sind natürlich die Feierlichkeiten mit tausenden Akteuren und "ganz normal" mutet manches Alltagsbild der Bürger an.

Ein wunderbarer Bildband den ich bereits weitere fünf mal verschenkt habe so sehr hat er mich begeistert!

Dieses Buch darf in keiner Sammlung fehlen!

6 people found this helpful

Translate review to English

Max Ziegler

Kunst und Politik

Reviewed in Germany 🇩🇪 on August 21, 2014

Verified Purchase

Ein faszinierendes Buch mit tollen Beschreibungen und faszinierenden Bildern mit intensiven Farben. Julia Leeb schafft mit dem Buch für mich einen schwierigen Spagat zwischen der oft trockenen und komplexen Politik in Verbindung mit farbenfrohen Kunstvollen Bildern.
In diesem Buch kann man Entdeckungsreise spielen und "hinter den Vorhang" schauen. Eine kunstvolle Entdeckungsreise für Erwachsene mit gesellschaftlichem Anspruch!
Ein tolles Buch und Geschenkidee über Grenzen hinweg!

4 people found this helpful

Translate review to English

NGK

Beeindruckende Bilder aus einer uns fremden Welt

Reviewed in Germany 🇩🇪 on November 5, 2014

Verified Purchase

Julia Leeb hat es in beeindruckender Weise geschafft dem Leser und Betrachter Einblicke in eine Welt zu gestatten die den meisten von uns verschlossen ist. Unprätentiöse aber trotzdem (oder genau deswegen) gewaltige Aufnahmen, die im Gedächtnis haften bleiben. Man bekommt einen Blick auf die Menschen und deren Leben, abseits der uns bekannten Propaganda. Dies ist ein Buch, dass ich immer wieder zur Hand nehme, um in diese fremde Welt einzutauchen.

Sehr empfehlenswert!

2 people found this helpful

Translate review to English

Gregor Beck

Ein muss für jedes Wohnzimmer!

Reviewed in Germany 🇩🇪 on October 18, 2014

Verified Purchase

Ein sehr gelungenes Werk, dass alle meine Gäste nur ungern wieder aus der Hand geben. Ich selbst blättere es immer wieder durch. Es zeigt wunderbare Aufnahmen aus einem unbekannten Land. Dieses Buch sollte sicherlich in keinem Wohnzimmer fehlen. Wäre der Preis etwas moderater angesetzt, könnte man es auch öfter einmal als Gastgeschenk mitbringen.

4 people found this helpful

Translate review to English

TingMatin

Endlich!

Reviewed in Germany 🇩🇪 on October 8, 2014

Verified Purchase

Endlich!

Unvoreingenommen, hintergründlich, faszinierend. Wem daran liegt sich ein eigenes Bild zu machen, hat mit diesem Buch die Möglichkeit dazu!

Einfach empfehlenswert!!!

3 people found this helpful

Translate review to English

See all reviews

Buy new: $29.95$29.95 FREE delivery: Thursday, Oct 13 Ships from: Amazon Sold by: Hemenway House

Buy Pre-owned: $12.50

Other Sellers on Amazon

Follow the Author

North Korea: Anonymous Country Hardcover – September 15, 2014

Enhance your purchase

Product details

Videos

About the author

Julia Leeb

Customer reviews

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Top reviews from other countries

Buy new:

$29.95

FREE delivery: Thursday, Oct 13

Ships from: Amazon

Sold by: Hemenway House

Buy Pre-owned:

$12.50