David Guttenfelder named Instagram photographer of the year

Time has named Associated Press chief Asia photojournalist David Guttenfelder it's Instagram photographer of the year, thanks in large part to his fascinating depictions of life inside North Korea.

Guttenfelder's unique post allows him the world's most intimate access to the rogue state, where despite being forever under the watchful eye of a government minder, he's managed to produce gorgeous, haunting visual documents.

'Not the kind of place where you can make what photojournalists call good pictures very easily,' Guttenfelder told Time. '[But] when you add up all the pieces something interesting starts to emerge.'

Guttenfelder manages to illustrate the totalitarian regime's iron grip on its people in quiet ways: the eerily empty streets if Pyongyang, little school boys all honing their drawing skills with sketches of the country's leaders and a hospital nursery full of silent babies.

Instead of keeping these visual revelations on any one website or newspaper, Guttenfelder offers his gifts to the world via Instagram

'Nobody knows anything about [North Korea] and what it looks like,' says Guttenfelder. 'I feel like there’s a big opportunity and a big responsibility.'

Read more: - dailymail.co.uk