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Lukas Birk
Lukas Birk
Lukas Birk, 2019.
Born (1982-08-30) 30 August 1982 (age 42)
Bregenz, Vorarlberg, Austria
NationalityAustrian
Alma materUniversity of West London,
Rhode Island School of Design
Known forHistorical photography of Asia
Websitewww.lukasbirk.com

Lukas Birk (born 1982) is an Austrian photographer, archivist, and publisher. He is mainly known for his visual archive work in Myanmar and research on Box Camera photography in Afghanistan. Birk has worked on photographic projects, films and visual research in China, South and Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent. He has published numerous books on visual culture and photographic history.

Birk also co-founded the Austro Sino Art Program (2008–2014) in Beijing, China and the SewonArtSpace in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. In Myanmar, he founded the Myanmar Photo Archive, the country’s first public photography archive and set up an accompanying publishing program. Further, his publishing company Fraglich Publishing focuses on publications of visual culture and limited edition prints.

Early life and education

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Lukas Birk was born in 1982 in Bregenz, Vorarlberg, Austria. Initially he studied journalism and radio.[1] Birk attended the Ealing School of Art Design and Media of the University of West London, graduating with a bachelor's degree in digital art and photography in 2005.[2][dead link,better source needed] He then continued his studies at Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), graduating with a M.F.A. degree in Printmaking in 2017.[3][4]

Work

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Kafkanistan

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Birk’s first major body of work Kafkanistan – tourism to conflict areas (2005–2008), produced with Irish ethnographer Sean Foley, explored the activities of tourists in Afghanistan and the Pakistani tribal areas. Their research resulted in a feature film, exhibition and book.[5]

Austro Sino Arts program

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Together with Austrian artist and scholar Karel Dudesek, Birk co-founded the Austro Sino Arts Program (ASAP). This program operated out of Beijing, P.R. China, between 2008 and 2014, organizing exhibitions, film festivals and publications. It showcased the work of non-Chinese artists working in China and produced these artists’ perspectives on China. The project received major support from the Austrian Arts Council.[6]

During his stay in China, Birk both collected historical photographs and took his own pictures of the same places. These were published in his monograph Polaroids from the Middle Kingdom. Old and New World Visions of China.[7][8]

SewonArtSpace

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In 2011, Karel Dudesek and Birk founded SewonArtSpace in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. SewonArtSpace is a non-profit art space and residency program hosting primarily Austrian artists and connecting them to the local art scene in Yogyakarta, one of Southeast Asia’s most thriving art cities. The first public exhibition presented artworks by Dudesek, Birk and Marbot Fritsch as well as Indonesian artists Nurul 'Acil' Hayat, Arya Sukapura Putra, and Baskoro Latu.[citation needed]

The project received funding from the Austrian Federal Ministry for Culture, Arts and Education.[9]

Afghan Box Camera project

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In 2011, Birk and Sean Foley returned to Afghanistan to investigate the last remaining Box Camera photographers working in the streets of Kabul and other cities in Afghanistan as well as in Peshawar, Pakistan.[10] They conducted research trips between 2011 and 2014, resulting in an online archive[11] as well as the books Afghan Box Camera and Photo Peshawar.[12][13] Birk and Foley coined the terms Afghan Box Camera and Kamra-e-Faoree,[14] two descriptions for Box Camera photography in these countries.[15] This was achieved primarily through international media coverage,[16][17] open-source films and their manual ‘How to build an Afghan Box Camera’, published on social media and their own platform on Vimeo.

Alaminüt photography

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In 2014, Birk began collecting box camera photographs called alaminüt (Turkish, from French: 'by the minute') in bazaars in Istanbul and Ankara, but also in Izmir, Mardin and Erzerum. Alaminüt photographers had been active across Turkey from the 1910s until their gradual disappearance in the mid-1980s. In 2023, Birk published a dedicated website and the photo-book Alaminüt Fotoğraf. Itinerant photography in Turkey in English and Turkish. In his introduction, he wrote about the social importance of this kind of vernacular photography during the formative years of the modern Turkish republic and presented images of different sub-genres, including portraits of families, professional groups, soldiers and alaminüt photographers at work.[18] According to Turkish social scientist Özge Calafato, who contributed with an introduction to the book, alaminüt photographers "filled in an important vacuum by penetrating remote towns and villages, reaching out to the lower classes, who might otherwise have no access to photo studios at the time."[19]

Myanmar Photo Archive

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Main article: Myanmar Photo Archive

In 2013, Birk started collecting photographic material and conducting research on the history of photography in Myanmar.[20] The same year, he founded the first public photographic archive focusing on local Myanmar vernacular photography, the Myanmar Photo Archive (MPA).[21] The MPA has produced several exhibitions[22][23] with materials from their archive comprising more than 30,000 images and started a photo-book publishing program in Yangon.[24][25][26] The books were published in English and Burmese and distributed internationally.[27] The MPA has received major funding from the British Library's Endangered Archives Programme[28] and the German cultural center – Goethe-Institute – in Myanmar.[29]

Collections

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Birk's work is held in the following public permanent collections:

Publications

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  • with Sean Foley. Kafkanistan – tourism to conflict zones. Fraglich, Austria / Glitterati, USA, 2008/2012. ISBN 978-0985169626
  • with Sean Foley. Afghan Box Camera. Dewi Lewis, UK, 2013. ISBN 978-1907893360
  • Polaroids from the Middle Kingdom. Glitterati, USA, 2014. ISBN 978-0988174566
  • 35 Bilder Krieg. Fraglich, Austria, 2015. ISBN 978-3-9502773-7-1
  • with Sean Foley and Omar Khan. Photo Peshawar. Mapin / PIX, Ahmedabad & New Delhi, India: 2018. ISBN 978-9385360466
  • Burmese Photographers. Goethe-Institut Myanmar, Yangon, 2018
  • with Natasha Christia. Gülistan. Fraglich, Austria, 2019
  • FERNWEH – a man's journey. Fraglich, Austria, 2019. ISBN 978-3-9502773-0-2
  • with Özge Calafato. Alaminüt Fotoğraf. Itinerant photography in Turkey. Fraglich, Austria, 2023. ISBN 978-3-9505064-1-9
  • My Name is Noor Mohammad Khan. 2nd ed. Fraglich, Austria, 2024.

References

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  1. ^ Hirsch, Robert (March 2012). "Lukas Birk and the Afghan Box Camera Project" (PDF). Light Research. Archived (PDF) from the original on 24 January 2022. Retrieved 22 June 2020.
  2. ^ "Multi-media artist and UWL alumnus returns to share 'the untold story of Afghan photography'". University of West London. 2014. Retrieved 22 June 2020.
  3. ^ "Mysterious Myanmar". Our RISD. 5 February 2016. Archived from the original on 25 June 2020. Retrieved 22 June 2020.
  4. ^ "Lukas Birk | Rhode Island School of Design - Academia.edu". risd.academia.edu. Retrieved 4 March 2024.
  5. ^ "Artists Lukas Birk and Sean Foley Defy Misconceptions of the Middle East with "Kafkanistan"". Complex. Archived from the original on 12 June 2020. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
  6. ^ "mǐfàn | article | ARTLINKART | Chinese contemporary art database". www.artlinkart.com. Archived from the original on 4 February 2024. Retrieved 3 June 2020.
  7. ^ "The best coffee table books out now". The Telegraph. 2 July 2015. ISSN 0307-1235. Archived from the original on 27 July 2020. Retrieved 3 June 2020.
  8. ^ "Lukas Birk". Huck Magazine. 1 April 2014. Archived from the original on 3 June 2020. Retrieved 3 June 2020.
  9. ^ "SewonArtSpace". www.transartists.org. Archived from the original on 3 June 2020. Retrieved 3 June 2020.
  10. ^ "Framing the frontier city". The Hindu@businessline. 14 September 2018. Archived from the original on 3 June 2020. Retrieved 3 June 2020.
  11. ^ "Afghan Box Camera Project". www.afghanboxcamera.com. Archived from the original on 7 August 2020. Retrieved 31 May 2020.
  12. ^ Foley, Sean (2018). Photo Peshawar = Pishāvar ke foṭogrāfar. Birk, Lukas, Khan, Omar 1958–. Ahmedabad, India. ISBN 978-93-85360-46-6. OCLC 1043638133. Archived from the original on 26 June 2020. Retrieved 12 June 2020.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  13. ^ "The strange world of Pakistani glamour photography". Huck Magazine. 1 August 2018. Archived from the original on 3 June 2020. Retrieved 3 June 2020.
  14. ^ Habe-Evans, Mito (8 February 2011). "Instant Street Photography, Afghanistan-Style". NPR.org. Archived from the original on 12 June 2020. Retrieved 3 June 2020.
  15. ^ Liliy, Roth (2 February 2012). "The Disappearing Afghan Box Camera". TIME Lightbox. Archived from the original on 4 August 2020. Retrieved 12 June 2020.
  16. ^ "In pictures: Afghan box camera". BBC News. 1 February 2014. Archived from the original on 20 August 2015. Retrieved 3 June 2020.
  17. ^ "Afghan Box Cameras: how street photographers captured a nation". the Guardian. 1 February 2014. Archived from the original on 4 June 2020. Retrieved 3 June 2020.
  18. ^ "Tarih / History – ALAMİNÜT FOTOĞRAFÇILIK". Retrieved 12 February 2024.
  19. ^ Calafato, Özge (2020). "A wooden box, tripod and cloth: The role of alaminüt photography in the making of modern Turkey". www.academia.edu. Retrieved 12 February 2024.
  20. ^ "Collaboration project of Goethe-Institut Myanmar and Myanmar Photo Archive". 19 June 2023. Archived from the original on 19 June 2023. Retrieved 4 March 2024.
  21. ^ "Myanmar Photo Archive". Open Source Archive. Retrieved 31 May 2020.
  22. ^ "Exhibition Looks Back on 120 Years of Photography in Myanmar". The Irrawaddy. 2 February 2018. Archived from the original on 30 May 2020. Retrieved 31 May 2020.
  23. ^ "Archiving the lives of others". The Myanmar Times. 1 February 2018. Archived from the original on 27 February 2018. Retrieved 3 June 2020.
  24. ^ "Retro shots of Myanmar youth culture from the '70s to the '90s". Huck Magazine. 5 April 2018. Archived from the original on 29 September 2020. Retrieved 3 June 2020.
  25. ^ "Chinese Photo Studios in Yangon: The Myanmar Photo Archive". Photography of China. Archived from the original on 3 June 2020. Retrieved 3 June 2020.
  26. ^ "Lukas Birk (Myanmar Photo Archive) on 1970s Burmese National Identity Card Photographs". Object Lessons Space. Archived from the original on 3 June 2020. Retrieved 3 June 2020.
  27. ^ "Structuring the past in pictures". The Myanmar Times. 2 February 2020. Archived from the original on 7 March 2020. Retrieved 3 June 2020.
  28. ^ "Endangered archives blog: Impressions from Myanmar". blogs.bl.uk. Archived from the original on 3 June 2020. Retrieved 3 June 2020.
  29. ^ "Collaboration project of Goethe-Institut Myanmar and Myanmar Photo Archive". 19 June 2023. Archived from the original on 19 June 2023. Retrieved 10 January 2024.
  30. ^ Landespressestelle Land Vorarlberg (26 April 2018). ""Wertvoller Impuls für die Vorarlberger Gegenwartskunst"". Landespressestelle Land Vorarlberg (in German). Archived from the original on 10 February 2024. Retrieved 10 January 2024.
  31. ^ "Lukas Birk". Walker Art Center. Retrieved 4 February 2024.
  32. ^ "Lukas Birk (Austrian, b. 1982)". Rhode Island School of Design Museum. Retrieved 4 February 2024.
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