Vanishing Point

“North Korea faded to black in the early 1990s. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, which had propped up its old Communist ally with cheap fuel oil, North Korea’s creakily inefficient economy collapsed. Power stations rusted to ruin. The lights went out. Hungry people scaled utility poles to pilfer bits of copper wire to swap for food. When the sun drops low in the sky, the landscape fades to gray and the squat little houses are swallowed up by the night. Entire villages vanish into the dusk. Even in parts of the showcase capital of Pyongyang, you can stroll down the middle of a main street at night without being bale to see the buildings on either side.” — Barbara Demick, Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea

“Korea 2007–2010,” a solo exhibition of work by Thomas Struth, is on view through January 9, 2011, at Gallery Hyundai, Seoul.