Thinking About Photography
Dedicated to expanding our ideas about photography
Fraglich Publishing
Fraglich Publishing and the Myanmar Photo Archive: A Commitment to Local Histories and Ethical Publishing
Fraglich Publishing was founded by Austrian photographer and researcher Lukas Birk in 2007 with the aim of producing zines and localized publications aligned with his research. It is an independent imprint dedicated to uncovering and sharing small yet resonant historical narratives from around the world, with a strong focus on South and Southeast Asia, as well as Central Asia. At its core, the publishing house engages with photographic archives, both ones I have personally assembled and those held by others, exploring how photography has been practiced, produced, and embedded into everyday life in places such as Afghanistan, Myanmar, and beyond.
Our focus is firmly on local photographic production. We are interested in what photographers have done within their own societies, how photography has shaped or documented those societies, and the social meanings embedded in these visual practices. Equally central to our mission is the principle of local publishing. Wherever possible, we print our books in the country from which the project originates. In Myanmar, for example, we use locally sourced materials and collaborate with local printers, as we do in India or Turkey. This approach not only fosters local economies but supports the development of regional print practices, while reinforcing ethical frameworks around the circulation of cultural narratives. Only after completing local production and distribution do we introduce the books into our international network.
The Myanmar Photo Archive emerged from these commitments. Initiated in 2013 in response to the absence of a national photographic archive in Myanmar, MPA has since grown into a substantial and multifaceted platform. Today, it houses over 40,000 images and serves not only as an archive but as a hub for workshops, bookbinding, and digitisation initiatives. The archive has yielded eight books and numerous exhibitions, all deeply grounded in local engagement and global relevance. While publishing is one strand of the project, the broader ambition is to activate photographs within their communities of origin, fostering participation and historical reflection.
One of our standout titles is Yangon Fashion, 1979. This book compiles studio portraits of young Burmese people in custom-tailored outfits, taken during an era when expressions of individuality, especially through fashion, were heavily constrained. In response, these youths transformed the photo studio into a space of resistance and creativity, circulating images among friends as a quiet form of defiance. The book captures a moment where photography became an intimate act of cultural assertion.
Another significant publication is Twana’s Box, a collaboration with editor Rawsht Twana. The book traces the photographic legacy of Twana’s father, a Kurdish studio photographer who was assassinated during the Saddam Hussein era. Over a decade, Rawsht recovered and contextualised these scattered images, which offer a poignant, personal window into Kurdish life in the 1980s and 90s. Twana’s Box stands as both a familial memorial and a visual testimony of a persecuted culture.
We try to demonstrate how ethical, locally anchored publishing work can cross borders, geographical, political, and emotional, to create deeply human stories in print that make primarily a local but also international impact