Unperson - Portrait of North Korean Defectors

In George Orwell ´s 1984 , an unperson is someone who has been vaporized , whose record has been erased . The people i chose to portray made the decision to disappear from their own Orwellian world - North Korea . Sometimes for ideological reasons and often by despair, they left behind a life that would disappear for ever. The road to South Korea is dangerous and can take years. Having arrived in South Korea , they often struggle to find a new identity; Lost between their North Korean past and South Korean future . To reflect this incredible transition, I chose to portray these defectors on an analog material that is not supposed to exist. Just as their situation, the negative of a polaroid is not supposed be usable. It is only obtained through a series of chemical purifications of the back paper that reveal the original polaroid image. This series of portraits is the first chapter of a project reflecting on North Korea, on the notion of borders and identity .