Ferris earned himself a US Coast Guard 3rd Mate Unlimited license from Maine Maritime Academy, and took a job on a global class research ship.
There was just one problem: the job was seven months on with five months vacation.
Skip straight to North Korea >
"While on the ship, room and board goes with the job; I found keeping an apartment and all the trappings of a settled life is a waste of money," Ferris told Business Insider.
So he took another job, as a tour guide ... in North Korea.
"My involvement In North Korea started in 2011 soon after the North Korea granted unlimited year round access to Americans on tourist visas," said Ferris. "With help from one of the major North Korean tour companies I simply worked as a tour group leader to arrange and fill my own private trips there in 2011 and 2012."
Ferris took up photography, and that's how we got these photos — through his blog AmericanInNorthKorea.
"I came back with photos that seemed to really tell a different story about the people of North Korea – their human side," said Ferris.
Ferris started his own blog in some ways to counter all the less-than-accurate information floating around out there. Mainly though, he was just interested in documenting his experiences.
Ferris has now officially fallen in with a tour group called Young Pioneer Tours and plans to one day retire and find a place where old tour guides can "drink North Korean beer on the beach."
Yes. There is such a thing as North Korean beer. There's many things most folks don't know about North Korea.