为世界打开一扇观察朝鲜的窗口
日期:2015-06-15 14:51

(单词翻译:单击)

As one of the few Western journalists who has traveled widely in North Korea, David Guttenfelder believes that photography can open a window onto a country. And on a recent trip to that closed society, he took that credo to a different level.
作为为数不多的深入朝鲜境内游历的西方记者之一,大卫·古登菲尔德(David Guttenfelder)坚信照片能够打开一扇窗户,让外界了解一个国家。在最近一次造访这个封闭社会的旅途中,他把这一信条提升到了一个不同的层次。
About 31 floors up in his hotel room.
在大约31层楼高的酒店房间里。
Firing up his Periscope app, Mr. Guttenfelder pointed his iPhone outside his hotel window and began to stream live video. Soon, he was being peppered with questions from online viewers: What was it like? What did he eat? How was it working there? That intense curiosity — not to mention engagement — was similar to when he had posted images to Instagram, not only during his recent visit, but also dating back to his tenure as The Associated Press’s chief Asia photographer.
在设置好Periscope应用之后,古登菲尔德把自己的iPhone对准酒店的窗外,开始录制直播视频。很快,网络观众就向他提出了一系列问题:朝鲜是个怎么样的国家?他吃什么?在朝鲜工作感觉怎么样?这种强烈的好奇心——更不必说这种互动——同之前他把照片传到Instagram上时颇为类似。不仅是最近访问朝鲜时,在过去担任美联社(Associated Press)亚洲首席摄影记者一职时,他也会在Instagram上发布照片。



“There’s probably not a better place to test the power of photography and photojournalism than a place that has never really allowed photography or foreigners there,” Mr. Guttenfelder said. “We don’t know very much about North Korea because it has not been photographed for 60-something years. The only images we ever see have been distributed by the state as propaganda. For me to go there over the years has been a rare opportunity and responsibility. Otherwise, it’s completely unknown. While imperfect, we have eyes on the ground and some windows opening.”Mr. Guttenfelder, who left the news service last year and is now a National Geographic photography fellow, had gone to North Korea for a six-day assignment for The New York Times, initially to photograph a trip by Gloria Steinem and other peace activists who were meeting with North and South Korean women. But as with any of his more than 40 previous trips there, he found time to document daily moments.
“因为基本上不允许摄影,也不允许外国人进驻,所以朝鲜可能是测试摄影和摄影新闻报道影响力的最佳地点,”古登菲尔德说道。“我们不太了解朝鲜,因为过去60多年里都没有关于朝鲜的照片。那些曾经见过的仅有的照片,都是朝鲜用作宣传发布的照片。对我来说,能够在过去几年里访问朝鲜,是一个难得的机会和责任。否则,外界就完全一无所知。虽然并不完美,但是我们在朝鲜有眼线,还有一些通畅的信息渠道。”古登菲尔德去年离开了通讯社,现在担任《国家地理》(National Geographic)的摄影师,他来到朝鲜为《纽约时报》展开了为期六天的工作。最初是为了拍摄格洛丽亚·斯泰纳姆(Gloria Steinem)和其他和平活动人士,同朝鲜和韩国女性的会面,但和之前的40多次访问一样,他抽空记录了一些日常生活的瞬间。
Face it: In a place as walled-off and mysterious as North Korea, any image not produced by the state was a revelation. In a way, Mr. Guttenfelder said, he felt it was his responsibility to show the outside world the reality away from stage-managed events.
要知道,在一个像朝鲜这样封闭而神秘的国家,任何一张并非由国家拍摄的照片,都是一种揭示。古登菲尔德表示,从某种程度上说,他感觉到自己有责任向外界展示真实的朝鲜,而非一些台面上精心安排的活动。
“It’s an amazing place to work as a photographer,” he said. “Anything I photograph I feel is of news value because we don’t know what the places looks like. Every picture looks like a piece of a puzzle, and the sum of the parts begin to reveal something.”That approach dates to one of his earliest trips to North Korea in 2000, when he accompanied then-Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright on a visit to Pyongyang. Back then, the Communist government gave new meaning to the notion of a closed society: The windows on his bus were covered with drapes, and he was told not to even bother taking out a camera. Even the windows of his hotel were covered.
“对于摄影师来说,朝鲜是一个不可思议的地方,”古登菲尔德表示。“我觉得我拍摄的任何一张照片都具有新闻价值,因为我们不了解这些地方都是什么样子。每张照片似乎都是拼图的一部分,把这些部分拼凑起来,就可以揭露一些事物。”这种方式可以追溯到他最早在2000年访问朝鲜的时候,当时他陪同时任美国国务卿的玛德琳·K·奥尔布赖特(Madeleine K. Albright)访问朝鲜平壤。那时,朝鲜的共产主义政府刷新了“封闭社会”这一概念的含义:古登菲尔德乘坐的汽车的窗户被封上了帘子,并且被告知不要妄想拿出照相机,就连他住的酒店窗户也被封上了。
“I couldn’t see outside,” he said. “I had the feeling that North Korea was not real. That it was a facade, like ‘The Truman Show.’ That’s what most people still think about North Korea.”
“我没法看到外面,”他说道,“我有一种感觉,朝鲜一点都不真实。它是一种假象,像《楚门的世界》(The Truman Show)。大部分人眼里的朝鲜仍旧是这样的。”
The importance of that visit took a back seat to things he began to notice on the periphery, like a scene of children tossing snowballs. At one point, when Dr. Albright was at a ceremony where food was being donated, he noticed a child who was cutting up in class. He could identify, imagining himself as a child being the class clown. It was a breakthrough moment.
那次访问变得不再重要了,因为他开始注意到周围的一些事物,比如说小孩子打雪仗这样的场景。奥尔布赖特出席一场食品捐赠仪式期间的某个时刻,古登菲尔德注意到一个孩子在班上插科打诨。对此,他完全可以认同,而且能够把自己想象成一个孩子,一个班里的活宝。这是一个具有突破性的瞬间。
“That was a surprising moment and informed how I try to photograph the country,” he said. “There are connections to be made. There are universal things to discover in a photo. Regular life shouldn’t be surprising. It should not be surprising there is real life and people try to get by. That seems to be one of the loudest things I can say with really subtle, mundane moments.”
“那是一个出人意料的瞬间,让我知道了应该如何拍摄这个国家。”他说道。“需要制造一些共鸣,从一张照片里可以发现一些普世的东西。日常生活不应该是让人惊讶的,朝鲜存在着真实的生活,人们努力维持生计,对此我们不应该感到惊讶。这似乎是我能通过那些细微且平淡的瞬间,讲出的最响亮的话。”
He embraced that approach in earnest in 2013, when North Korea allowed local 3G mobile phone service, permitting him to do everything people in the United States were doing on their smartphones, including using Twitter, Instagram and Foursquare. While others used the technology for personal reasons and connections, he saw the value as a journalist in an isolated society.
他真正采取那种做法是在2013年,当时朝鲜许可了本地的3G移动电话服务,于是他也能做美国人在智能手机上做的事情了,比如使用Twitter、Instagram和Foursquare。其他人出于个人原因和联系的目的使用科技手段时,他作为封闭社会的一个记者,看到了其中的价值。
His Instagram feed attracted hundreds of thousands of followers, and he realized this work on social media was as important as any of the other photography and journalism he was doing. With his use of Periscope, he continued to find new ways to use new tools, even if he had first used it only a month earlier — to watch the title bout between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. “I ended up watching with some family in Mexico filming the fight” on their living room television, he said. “I hadn’t used it until I got to North Korea.”
他在Instagram上的动态吸引了成千上万的关注者,随后他意识到这项在社交媒体上的工作,与他在做的其他摄影和新闻工作一样重要。他对Periscope的运用,实际上延续了以创新方式运用新工具的做法,尽管他开始使用Periscope才一个月——观看曼尼·帕奎奥(Manny Pacquiao)和小弗洛伊德·梅威瑟(Floyd Mayweather Jr.)的冠军较量。他说,“结果我观看的是墨西哥一家人”在起居室的电视上录制的比赛画面。“我在去朝鲜之前从来没用过。”
But once there, he took advantage. During a drive in the countryside, he again pointed his phone out the window, showing rural scenes.
但一到朝鲜,他就抓住了机会。一次在乡间驾车时,他把手机伸出窗外,展示乡间的景象。
“To see the countryside, the rural areas of the country, and know it was not me being led, directed to stand in some spot, this was clearly candid, the world passing by… ,” he said. “Even if the video is a bit shaky, it’s certainly not broadcast quality, but it’s more powerful in a way. People feel they are there, and you can transport them to a place very few people have ever seen.”Bringing outsiders into close contact with life in North Korea — if only via a phone or a laptop — continues to guide Mr. Guttenfelder. He has been curating @EverydayDPRK, an Instagram feed in which he features images taken by foreigners living in or visiting North Korea. His contributors include a model-turned-English-teacher from California; a tour guide who had made some 150 trips there; and an Indonesian stay-at-home father.
“我看到了乡间,看到了这个国家的农村,我知道自己站到某个地点时,并没有被人引导、指示。这都是坦诚的,世界在我身边经过……”他说。“尽管视频有些晃动,并且画面质量肯定不到播出的水准,但它在某种方式上更有力度。人们觉得他们是在现场,而你能把他们带到极少有人见过的地方。”带外人近距离地接触朝鲜的生活,这仍然是古登菲尔德的指引目标——虽然只是通过手机或笔记本电脑。他一直在整理@EverydayDPRK的内容,这个Instagram账户展示的是在朝鲜生活和参观的外国人拍摄的照片。向他提供照片的包括一个来自加州、以前做过模特的英语教师;一个去过朝鲜150次的导游,还有一个印度尼西亚的居家父亲。
Each one offers another peek, another piece of the puzzle. Each image also helps dispel some of the misconceptions about the country.
每个人都提供了一瞥的景象,提供了拼图的另外一块。每张照片都有助于驱散关于这个国家的误解。
“They are questioning reality,” Mr. Guttenfelder said of some viewers. “It’s hard for people to believe that North Koreans commute to work on the bus, or what they see in cities and the countryside is representative of real life there.”
“他们在质疑真实性,”古登菲尔德谈到一些关注者时这样说。“人们很难相信朝鲜人坐公交上下班,也很难相信他们看到的城市和乡村反映了那里真实的生活。”
Granted, a dictatorship wary of the outside world is not an easy place to work. Some critics would counsel him to stay away altogether, rather than try any engagement. Mr. Guttenfelder said that despite the constraints, he had not been censored, which in some ways makes his responsibility even greater: to decide what is real or not.
诚然,一个对外部世界谨慎提防的独裁国家不是一个容易工作的地方。一些批评者会劝告他避而远之,而不是试图有所接触。古登菲尔德说尽管有着各种限制,他还没受到审查,而这在某些方面让他的责任变得更大:判断什么是真实的而什么不是。
“Social media is uncharted territory for all of us, including North Korea,” he said. “I’m allowed to work there as a journalist, and this is a tool, one of the many I use to tell the story. I don’t think there is a clear line on this. I also think there shouldn’t be, really. I think it’s in everyone’s interest to have connections made between North Korea, its neighbors and the rest of the world. The more information that flows in both directions, the better for everyone.”
“社交媒体对所有人都是一个未知的领域,包括朝鲜,”他说。“我获准以记者的身份在那里工作,而这是个工具,许多我用来讲故事的工具之一。我不认为在这个问题上有一个清晰的界限,我也觉得不该有,真的。我认为在朝鲜和它的邻国,以及世界其他国家之间建立联系,对每个人都有好处。彼此间双向流动的信息越多,对大家也就越好。”

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