North Korea: Like Nowhere Else
Two Years Of Living In The World’s Most Secretive State
As featured on CNN, The Wall Street Journal, BBC Korea, The Telegraph and elsewhere.
Bestseller in travel writing and travel photography on Amazon US, UK and Japan.
A photographic exploration from a Westerner living and travelling in North Korea for two years.
What happens when you travel to a place where even basic truths are ambiguous? Where sometimes you can’t trust your own eyes or feelings? Where the divide between real and imagined is never clear?
For two years, Lindsey Miller lived in North Korea, long regarded as one of the most closed societies on earth. As one of Pyongyang’s small community of resident foreigners, Lindsey was granted remarkable freedoms to experience the country without government minders. She had a front row seat as North Korea shot into the headlines during an unprecedented period of military tension with the US and the subsequent historic Singapore Summit.
However, it was the connection with individuals and their families, and the day-to-day reality of control and repression, that delivered the real revelations of North Korean life, and which left Lindsey utterly changed from the woman who had nervously disembarked from her plane onto an empty runway just two years before.
This is her extraordinary photographic account, a testament to the hidden humanity of North Korea.
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“Remarkable”
— The Bookseller
“There was much of the North Koreans and their way of life that I liked and admired, and Lindsey Miller’s book brought back those positive feelings. And if we don’t acknowledge those we will never begin to understand the country.”
— Michael Palin
'The book delves into a well of human emotions as she tries to connect with her new home ... her photos and anecdotes explore the extent to which honest, genuine relationships can exist under the oppressive scrutiny of a cruel and totalitarian regime, as well as offering a glimpse of genuine curiosity and friendly gestures from the people she encounters.'
— Telegraph
“Paints a vivid picture of communities kept under the close grip of police surveillance, while also unravelling some of the wider misconceptions about North Korean society.”
— Mirror
Lindsey’s début book North Korea: Like Nowhere Else, a book about her two years of living in North Korea as a diplomatic spouse was published by September Publishing in May 2021. It has since been translated into Korean and Mandarin Chinese. It includes over 200 of her photographs, long essays, short stories and evocative short-story captions all with the aim of transporting the reader into sensory, everyday experiences in North Korea.
In November 2021, Lindsey was selected as runner-up in the National Geographic Traveller's Travel Writing Competition 2021. Her story, The market behind the mountains in North Korea, describes her experiences in Pyongyang's Tongil market. It was printed in the December 2021 issue and online.
Lindsey has a particular passion for highlighting the experiences of North Korean women. As a proud ally of organisation Liberty in North Korea, she has collaborated on several projects including writing a piece titled Women in North Korea: At the Forefront of Social and Political Change
Photography
As a photographer Lindsey is most interested in people’s humanity, both in the subject and viewer. Lindsey aims to use each image to inspire a deep questioning in the audience. What is their initial reaction when no context is given? How does it change when they know about what or who the subject actually is? How does it change again when they know about what could be felt and seen out of shot?
North Korea: Like Nowhere Else features over 200 of Lindsey’s photographs. Her work has been featured at galleries in Seoul, South Korea as part of Liberty in North Korea’s art shows.
If you would like to buy a print or collaborate on a project then please use the contact page.
