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Manan Vatsyayana/AFP/Getty Images
Spectator boats in Sydney Harbour look on as New Year's Eve fireworks erupt over the Sydney Harbour Bridge on January 1, 2013. Sydney kicked off a wave of dazzling firework displays welcoming in 2013, from Dubai to Moscow and London, with long-isolated Yangon joining the global pyrotechnics for the first time.
Muzaffar Salman/Reuters
A Free Syrian Army fighter fires his weapon during clashes with forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar Al-Assad in Aleppo's Bustan al-Qasr district December 30, 2012.
Saurabh Das/AP Photo
A man and woman dressed as Lady Justice join mourners after news of the death of a gang rape victim in New Delhi, India, Saturday, Dec. 29, 2012. Shocked Indians were mourning the death of the woman who was gang-raped and beaten on a bus in New Delhi nearly two weeks ago in an ordeal that galvanized people to demand greater protection for women from sexual violence. The placard says, 'war for justice'.
David Cooper/Toronto Star
Reuters Photographer Mike Cassese, waits in the parking lot at the Cecil B. Englebert Complex, in Dunedin, for Toronto Blue Jays players to arrive for the day at spring training Feb. 22nd, 2011. The much loved Toronto photojournalist died suddenly Thursday of an apparent heart attack. Cassese, 53, was an award-winning photographer, both as a former staffer with the Toronto Sun and later a freelancer who shot for Reuters. He will be missed.
Adrees Latif/Reuters
An ornament is surrounded by stuffed animals, lying at a memorial for victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, after snowfall in Newtown, Connecticut December 27, 2012.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes.
A boy performs a jump while sledding at the Whitlock Golf Club near Montreal, Monday, December 24, 2012.
Massoud Hossaini/AFP/Getty Images
Afghan men guide firefighters after a huge fire swept through a market in downtown Kabul on December 23, 2012, destroying hundreds of shops and forcing the city's nearby money exchange to evacuate, police and witnesses said. There were no reports of any casualties in the early morning blaze which destroyed most of the cloth market's 500 shops, Kabul fire department officials told AFP.
Steve Russell Photos/Toronto Star
A shopper is silhouetted against Christmas displays in Toronto's Eaton Centre on the last Saturday of shopping before Christmas.
Associated Press photographer David Guttenfelder's access to North Korea is enviable, and a photographer's dream. His many photos of the country depict an endlessly fascinating, visually surreal place. He's made 17 trips to the reclusive nation since 2000 — including six since The Associated Press bureau in Pyongyang opened in January 2012.
From a photo editor's perspective, it's always a pleasure to see his photos rolling over the wires, and today was like an early Christmas present when I saw these 34 frames of daily North Korean life, all shot on a Hasselblad XPAN from his visits this year.
Some words from him on how he photographed these remarkable images:
For this project, I used a Hasselblad XPAN, a panoramic-view film camera that is no longer manufactured. Throughout the year, I wore it around my neck and shot several dozen rolls of colour negative film in between my normal coverage of news and daily life with my AP-issued digital cameras.
The XPAN is quiet, discreet, manual and simple. Because it has a wide panoramic format, it literally gives me a different view of North Korea. The film also reflects how I feel when I'm in North Korea, wandering among the muted or gritty colours, and the fashions and styles that often seem to come from a past generation.
In my photography, I try to maintain a personal point of view, a critical eye, and shoot with a style that I think of as sometimes-whimsical and sometimes-melancholy. My aim is to open a window for the world on a place that is widely misunderstood and that would otherwise rarely be seen by outsiders.
I hope these images help people to develop their own understanding of the country, one that goes beyond the point-counterpoint presented by Pyongyang and Washington.And maybe they can help create some sort of bridge between the people of North Korea and the rest of the world.
The full 34 photo set continues after the jump.
North Koreans try to rebuild the banks of a washed out riverbed near their corn fields which were damaged by July flooding, in Songchon County.
Pedestrians walk along a street past apartment blocks in central Pyongyang.
North Korean men watch others play basketball at a public court in Pyongyang.
Men study in desks beneath portraits of the country's late leaders, Kim Il Sung, left, and Kim Jong Il, at the Grand People's Study House in Pyongyang.
North Koreans gather along the banks of the Taedong River in Pyongyang to watch a fireworks display to celebrate 100 years since the birth of the late North Korean founder Kim Il Sung.
The sun sets over Pyongyang, North Korea, behind the curtained window of a downtown hotel room.
