Humans

Stories told with dignity.

Research / Storytelling / Bookbinding

Issue

North Korean concentration camps violate human rights and the dignity of mankind.

The Hidden Gulag by David Hawk documents the NK camps through numerous testimonies and aerial photographs. Out of those testimonies, specific stories of infanticide or forced abortions were included in this book as a record of the events that these individuals witnessed or personally experienced.

Concept

Sorrow, dignity, and honesty.

The pages of the book are made of soft paper, thin and fragile. They lie hand-bound between a single sheet of buttery goat-skin leather. 

Respectfully bring their stories to light.

The book is intentionally set vertically, so that every page is like the rising of a curtain, revealing an image and an accompanying story. The margins and leading are slightly wide, giving the words space to breathe. 

Images were taken in North Korea by tourists (repository found here, samples shown below). They are placed on the page in small and confined ways, acting as a window to a world that most people never get a glimpse of. At other times, the stories expose overwhelming truths that are then accompanied by full-bleed spreads.