NOW READ: A photographer visited North Korea 6 times to see what life is really like — here's what he saw
In April 2019, James Scullin and Nicole Reed ventured to North Korea, one of world's most isolated and authoritarian countries, to document a part of the country most of the Western world has never seen: the 11 international hotels of Pyongyang.
Source: Hotels of Pyongyang
James Scullin had worked as a North Korea tour guide to Westerners since 2012, but only ever saw the inside of two hotels. Determined to visit and photograph all 11 of them, he recruited photographer Nicole Reed to join him in 2018. The pair spent 12 months mapping out logistics.
Source: Hotels of Pyongyang
Built between 1961 and 1996 to house foreign visitors, many of Pyongyang's international hotels feature brutalist exteriors. From the outside, they exude the sense of uniformity that is prevalent throughout the capital.
Source: Hotels of Pyongyang
On the inside, however, they tell a completely different story. Scullin and Reed encountered grand marble-lined foyers decorated with fake flowers and pastel colors ...
Source: Hotels of Pyongyang
... as well as grand banquet halls adorned with chandeliers and landscape paintings.
Source: Hotels of Pyongyang
Neon lights like the kind "you would have seen in a casino in Las Vegas in the eighties" were plentiful, Reed said.
Source: Hotels of Pyongyang
While the hotels reflect an attention to detail that's prevalent in North Korean culture, Scullin and Reed were surprised by the colorful and sometimes whimsical designs.
Source: Hotels of Pyongyang
"In a country with so many rules about aesthetic and ways you represent things, it seems like the Western hotels did permit a flourish of creativity," Scullin said.
Source: Hotels of Pyongyang
Koryo Hotel's karaoke lounge is Scullin's favorite hotel space in Pyongyang. "It just feels like a time machine," he told Business Insider. "It has the beads that hang from the roof and it has this ceramic dog that's in there for some reason."
Source: Hotels of Pyongyang
Scullin likened the bar, with its futuristic swivel chairs, to something out of the 1960s sci-fi animated sitcom The Jetsons. While several hotels have been renovated since they were built, they have retained their original look and feel, he told Business Insider.
Source: Hotels of Pyongyang
"I think to a Westerner, they're very nostalgic places in terms of design and furniture choices," Reed said of Pyongyang's hotels.
Source: Hotels of Pyongyang
While Scullin and Reed couldn't control what parts of the hotel they had access to, they always tried to photograph the dining hall and the foyer, and the bar and pool if a hotel had them.
Source: Hotels of Pyongyang
During their trip, Scullin and Reed also took 20 portraits of hotel staff, from managers to waitresses, pool assistants, and bellmen.
Source: Hotels of Pyongyang
One image stands out in particular to Scullin as representative of North Koreans' attention to detail. "There was one room in particular that had a pink dining hall, and then the waitress walked in and she had a corresponding pink blazer on. It has this very Wes Anderson aesthetic where everything's paired so perfectly."
Source: Hotels of Pyongyang
Many hotels had their own uniforms and insignia.
Source: Hotels of Pyongyang
Scullin described taking the portraits as a "battle against modesty." The two North Korea Travel Association tour guides that negotiated Scullin and Reed's access to hotels often had to convince attendants to pose for photos.
Source: Hotels of Pyongyang
This portrait is one of Reed's favorite images. She recalls the pool attendant making a comment about wanting to be photographed in a positive way for the rest of the world in order to attract more visitors to the country.
Source: Hotels of Pyongyang
All tourists in North Korea must be accompanied by a tour guide from the state-run Korea International Travel Company. Since Scullin and Reed visited the hotels during the day when tourists were out on guided tours, the hotels were mostly empty.
Source: Hotels of Pyongyang
Scullin and Reed had just five days to photograph all 11 hotels and were fortunate that their trip went mostly as planned.
Source: Hotels of Pyongyang
One hotel didn't let Reed use her tripod, and they almost didn't gain access to Koryo Hotel's revolving restaurant, which Scullin calls an "integral part" of the Pyongyang experience, but in the end they were able to visit.
Source: Hotels of Pyongyang
Scullin carried whiskey with him just in case plans fell apart. "The idea would be that I would offer a bottle of Jameson as a gift to someone, one of the hotel managers to grease the wheels a little bit, but I never really had to do that," he said.
Source: Hotels of Pyongyang
Before North Korea closed its borders to tourists due COVID-19, it received just a few hundred thousand tourists per year, mostly from China. In 2017, the United States banned citizens from visiting North Korea following the death of UVA student Otto Warmbier, who was detained by North Korean officials.
Source: New York Times, United Press International, New York Post, US Department of State
"For me, that's always been very ironic that they have these series of international hotels for a country that's so isolated," Scullin told Business Insider, adding that being able to access these hotels was a "privilege."
Source: Hotels of Pyongyang
Scullin and Reed have just a released a new book "Hotels of Pyongyang," featuring over 150 photographs from their trip. The book is divided into 11 chapters, one per hotel. The only hotel they didn't visit inside was the Ryugyong Hotel, North Korea's so-called "ghost hotel" that has been under construction since 1987.
Source: Hotels of Pyongyang, Business Insider
Scullin told Business Insider that there are more cities and hotels he would like to photograph in North Korea when travel resumes. Reed would also "definitely go back" given the chance.
Source: Hotels of Pyongyang