Lukas Birk (born 1982) is an

Austrian Austrian may refer to: * Austrians, someone from Austria or of Austrian descent ** Someone who is considered an Austrian citizen * Austrian German dialect * Something associated with the country Austria, for example: ** Austria-Hungary ** Austria ...

photographer,

archivist An archivist is an information professional who assesses, collects, organizes, preserves, maintains control over, and provides access to records and archives determined to have long-term value. The records maintained by an archivist can cons ...

, and publisher. He is mainly known for his visual archive work in

Myanmar Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has ...

and research on Box Camera photography in Afghanistan. Birk has worked on photographic projects, films and visual research in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

South South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both west and east. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþa ...

and

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...

and the

Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a physiographic region of Asia below the Himalayas which projects into the Indian Ocean between the Bay of Bengal to the east and the Arabian Sea to the west. It is now divided between Bangladesh, India, and Pakista ...

. He has published numerous books on

visual culture Visual culture is the aspect of culture expressed in visual images. Many academic fields study this subject, including cultural studies, art history, critical theory, philosophy, media studies, Deaf Studies, and anthropology. The field of vi ...

and photographic history. Birk also co-founded the Austro Sino Art Program (2008–2014) in

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

, China and the SewonArtSpace in

Yogyakarta Yogyakarta is the capital city of the Special Region of Yogyakarta in Indonesia, in the south-central part of the island of Java. As the only Indonesian royal city still ruled by Hamengkubuwono, a monarchy, Yogyakarta is regarded as an importan ...

, Indonesia. In

, he founded the Myanmar Photo Archive, the country’s first

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...

photography archive and set up an accompanying publishing program. Further, his publishing company ''Fraglich Publishing'' focuses on publications of

and limited edition prints.

Early life and education

Lukas Birk was born in 1982 in

Bregenz Bregenz (; ) is the capital of Vorarlberg, the westernmost states of Austria, state of Austria. The city lies on the east and southeast shores of Lake Constance, the third-largest freshwater lake in Central Europe, between Switzerland in the wes ...

Vorarlberg Vorarlberg ( ; ; , , or ) is the westernmost States of Austria, state () of Austria. It has the second-smallest geographical area after Vienna and, although it also has the second-smallest population, it is the state with the second-highest popu ...

, Austria. Initially he studied journalism and radio. Birk attended the Ealing School of Art Design and Media of the

University of West London The University of West London (UWL) is a public research university in the United Kingdom with campuses in Ealing, Brentford, and Reading, Berkshire. The university has roots in 1860 when the Lady Byron School was founded, later Ealing Colleg ...

, graduating with a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...

digital art Digital art, or the digital arts, is artistic work that uses Digital electronics, digital technology as part of the creative or presentational process. It can also refer to computational art that uses and engages with digital media. Since the 1960 ...

and photography in 2005.^{ead link,better source needed/sup> He then continued his studies at Rhode Island School of Design

The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD , pronounced "Riz-D") is a private art and design school in Providence, Rhode Island. The school was founded as a coeducational institution in 1877 by Helen Adelia Rowe Metcalf, who sought to increase th ...
(RISD), graduating with a M.F.A. degree in Printmaking

Printmaking is the process of creating work of art, artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand proces ...
in 2017.

Work

Kafkanistan

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

Tourism is travel for pleasure, and the Commerce, commercial activity of providing and supporting such travel. World Tourism Organization, UN Tourism defines tourism more generally, in terms which go "beyond the common perception of tourism as ...
in Afghanistan and the Pakistani tribal areas. Their research resulted in a feature film, exhibition and book.

Austro Sino Arts program

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.

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''.

SewonArtSpace

In 2011, Karel Dudesek and Birk founded SewonArtSpace in Yogyakarta

Yogyakarta is the capital city of the Special Region of Yogyakarta in Indonesia, in the south-central part of the island of Java. As the only Indonesian royal city still ruled by Hamengkubuwono, a monarchy, Yogyakarta is regarded as an importan ...
, 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

Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...
’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.

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

Afghan Box Camera project

In 2011, Birk and Sean Foley returned to Afghanistan

Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...
to investigate the last remaining Box Camera photographers working in the streets of Kabul

Kabul is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province. The city is divided for administration into #Districts, 22 municipal districts. A ...
and other cities in Afghanistan as well as in Peshawar

Peshawar is the capital and List of cities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by population, largest city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It is the sixth most populous city of Pakistan, with a district p ...
, Pakistan. They conducted research trips between 2011 and 2014, resulting in an online archive as well as the books ''Afghan Box Camera'' and ''Photo Peshawar''. Birk and Foley coined the terms Afghan Box Camera

The street box camera or kamra-e-faoree is a handmade wooden camera. It is both a camera and a darkroom in one. The term Kamra-e-faoree comes from Dari where it means ‘instant camera’.

History
This type of camera was first used in small to ...
and ''Kamra-e-Faoree'', two descriptions for Box Camera photography in these countries. This was achieved primarily through international media coverage, open-source

Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use and view the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open source model is a decentrali ...
films and their manual ‘How to build an Afghan Box Camera’, published on social media and their own platform on Vimeo

Vimeo ( ) is an American Online video platform, video hosting, sharing, and services provider founded in 2004 and headquartered in New York City. Vimeo focuses on the delivery of high-definition video across a range of devices and operates on a ...
.

Alaminüt photography

In 2014, Birk began collecting box camera photographs called ''alaminüt'' (Turkish, from French: 'by the minute') in bazaars

A bazaar or souk is a marketplace consisting of multiple small stalls or shops, especially in the Middle East, the Balkans, Central Asia, North Africa and South Asia. They are traditionally located in vaulted or covered streets that have doors ...
in Istanbul

Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...
and Ankara

Ankara is the capital city of Turkey and List of national capitals by area, the largest capital by area in the world. Located in the Central Anatolia Region, central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5,290,822 in its urban center ( ...
, but also in Izmir, Mardin

Mardin (; ; romanized: ''Mārdīn''; ; ) is a city and seat of the Artuklu District of Mardin Province in Turkey. It is known for the Artuqids, Artuqid architecture of its old city, and for its strategic location on a rocky hill near the Tigris ...
and Erzerum
Erzurum (; ) is a city in eastern Anatolia, Turkey. It is the largest city and capital of Erzurum Province and is 1,900 meters (6,233 feet) above sea level. Erzurum had a population of 367,250 in 2010. It is the site of ancient Theodosiopolis.

T ...
. Alaminüt photographers had been active across Turkey

Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...
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

The term vernacular photography is used in several related senses. Each is in one way or another meant to contrast with received notions of fine-art photography. Vernacular photography is also distinct from both found photography and amateur photo ...
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. 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."

Myanmar Photo Archive

In 2013, Birk started collecting photographic material and conducting research on the history of photography

The history of photography began with the discovery of two critical principles: The first is camera obscura image projection; the second is the discovery that some substances are visibly altered by exposure to light. There are no artifacts or de ...
in Myanmar

Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has ...
. The same year, he founded the first public photographic archive focusing on local Myanmar vernacular photography

The term vernacular photography is used in several related senses. Each is in one way or another meant to contrast with received notions of fine-art photography. Vernacular photography is also distinct from both found photography and amateur photo ...
, the Myanmar Photo Archive (MPA). The MPA has produced several exhibitions with materials from their archive comprising more than 30,000 images and started a photo-book

A photo book or photobook is a book in which photographs make a significant contribution to the overall content. A photo book is related to and also often used as a coffee table book.

Early
Early photo books are characterized by their use o ...
publishing program in Yangon

Yangon, formerly romanized as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar. Yangon was the List of capitals of Myanmar, capital of Myanmar until 2005 and served as such until 2006, when the State Peace and Dev ...
. The books were published in English and Burmese and distributed internationally. The MPA has received major funding from the British Library

The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...
's Endangered Archives Programme

The Endangered Archives Programme (EAP) is a funding programme and digital archive run by the British Library in London. It has the purpose of preserving cultural heritage where resources may be limited. Each year EAP awards grants to researcher ...
and the German cultural center – Goethe-Institute – in Myanmar.

Collections

Birk's work is held in the following public permanent collections:
* Museum Vorarlberg, Austria
*Walker Art Center

The Walker Art Center is a multidisciplinary contemporary art center in the Lowry Hill, Minneapolis, Lowry Hill neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The Walker is one of the most-visited modern and contemporary art museums in ...

*RISD Museum

The Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design (RISD Museum) is an art museum integrated with the Rhode Island School of Design, in Providence, Rhode Island, US. The museum was co-founded with the school in 1877. It is the 20th-largest art m ...

Publications

* with Sean Foley. ''Kafkanistan – tourism to conflict zones.'' Fraglich, Austria / Glitterati, USA, 2008/2012.
* with Sean Foley. ''Afghan Box Camera.'' Dewi Lewis

Dewi Lewis (born Denbigh, Wales, 10 March 1951) is a publisher and curator of photography.
Career
In 1975, Lewis was the founding director of the Bury, Greater Manchester, Bury Metropolitan Arts Association which operates The Met (arts centre), ...
, UK, 2013.
* ''Polaroids from the Middle Kingdom''. Glitterati, USA, 2014.
* ''35 Bilder Krieg.'' Fraglich, Austria, 2015.
* with Sean Foley and Omar Khan. ''Photo Peshawar''. Mapin / PIX, Ahmedabad & New Delhi, India: 2018.
* ''Burmese Photographers.'' Goethe-Institut Myanmar, Yangon, 2018
* with Natasha Christia. ''Gülistan.'' Fraglich, Austria, 2019
* ''FERNWEH – a man's journey.'' Fraglich, Austria, 2019.
* with Özge Calafato. ''Alaminüt Fotoğraf. Itinerant photography in Turkey.'' Fraglich, Austria, 2023.
* ''My Name is Noor Mohammad Khan''. 2nd ed. Fraglich, Austria, 2024.

References

External links

*

Myanmar Photo Archive

Video of the 2018 exhibition "Burmese Photographers" at Yangon Secretariat
on Vimeo

Vimeo ( ) is an American Online video platform, video hosting, sharing, and services provider founded in 2004 and headquartered in New York City. Vimeo focuses on the delivery of high-definition video across a range of devices and operates on a ...

Manual "How to build an Afghan Box Camera"
* Vide
"How to build a kamra-e-faoree (Afghan box camera)"
on Vimeo

Vimeo ( ) is an American Online video platform, video hosting, sharing, and services provider founded in 2004 and headquartered in New York City. Vimeo focuses on the delivery of high-definition video across a range of devices and operates on a ...

* Vide
"How to use an Afghan Box Camera"
on Vimeo

{{DEFAULTSORT:Birk, Lukas
1982 births
Living people
People from Bregenz
21st-century Austrian photographers
Austrian archivists
Austrian publishers (people)
Rhode Island School of Design alumni}