People cross the street in central Pyongyang, North Korea May 4, 2016. (Photo by Damir Sagolj/Reuters)

A woman in traditional clothes wears a pin showing North Korea's founder Kim Il-sung (L) and former leader Kim Jong-il, on her dress as she welcomes foreign reporters to a temple during a government organised tour just outside Pyongyang October 8, 2015. North Korea is getting ready to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of its ruling Workers' Party of Korea on October 10. (Photo by Damir Sagolj/Reuters)

At this year’s Venice Bienniale in Italy, the Korean pavilion has a curious exhibit called “Commissions for Utopia”. It includes renderings from North Korea’s top architects and artists (all anonymous), many of whom studied at the Paekho Institute of Architecture, North Korea’s state-run architectural college, and none of whom have ever left the country. They were asked to create a vision of North Korea’s future sustainable architecture for its expanding tourism industry. Their final products are a glimpse into what it would be like to envision the future after being entirely cut off from the present for almost 70 years. (Photo by Nick Bonner/Kyle Vanhemert/Venice Architecture Biennale)

Female North Korean soldiers parade to mark the 60th anniversary of the signing of a truce in the 1950-1953 Korean War at Kim Il-sung Square, in Pyongyang. (Photo by Jason Lee/Reuters)

A North Korean war veteran is decorated with medals as he attends a parade to celebrate the anniversary of the Korean War armistice agreement, Sunday, July 27, 2014 in Pyongyang, North Korea. North Koreans gathered at Kim Il Sung Square as part of celebrations for the 61st anniversary of the armistice that ended the Korean War. (Photo by Wong Maye-E/AP Photo)

Ed Freeman was born and raised in Boston and majored in French and Russian at Oberlin College in Ohio. After college, he worked as a performing musician, arranger and record producer, creating dozens of pop and jazz vinyls, including Carly Simon’s debut album and Don McLean’s American Pie. Ed Freeman in 1990 and have watched him grow as an artist and a teacher. For the past eight years, Ed has been teaching a Photoshop class at Santa Monica City College and currently has large pieces of his work, Desert Realty, featured in a traveling museum.

Chunhun (R), the leader of Japan's North Korea fan club called sengun-joshi, or military-first girls, and other members practice a Moranbong Band dance in Tokyo, Japan on November 2, 2017. (Photo by Toru Hanai/Reuters)

North Korean commuters are seen through a door window waiting to board a train in a subway train station in Pyongyang, North Korea, 14 April 2017. North Koreans are preparing to celebrate the “Day of the Sun” festival, commemorating the 105th birthday anniversary of former supreme leader Kim Il-sung on 15 April, as tension over nuclear issues rise in the region. (Photo by How Hwee Young/EPA)