When James Scullin first visited North Korea in 2012 he was entranced. It was the most different place he had ever been, akin to “travelling from a portal to another world” as he describes it. At 29, he moved to Beijing to work as an environmental consultant. Having previously worked as a history guide in Berlin, he began leading tours to Pyongyang, eventually returning seven times.

Now back in Melbourne working at the Asia Society, Scullin has published a large-format book of photography, Hotels of Pyongyang, that defies expectations of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea as a drab and homogenous place.