Lukas Birk – författare

This book explores the world of present-day travel andtourism to Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan with words and images based on actual happenings.The journal, Kafkanistan, explores how we are all influenced by the media. Believing that many of us will never visit the region and all we know about it is what we read in the newspapers and what we see on television, the authors were interested in perceptions based on the media versus their reality as visitors. These are, through first-hand experience and interviews with the local people and the objects in their lives, documented in this book.However, this is not a straightforward journal, because through their inquiry, the travelers discovered that the "real" world of the tourist this region has, is so bizarre, that it is a surreal one.Thus each man adopted an identity, to better integrate in his travels through the universe of "Kafkanistan," to aptly describe their experiences. Here is an image of a world that is based on and which represents actual happenings that are so unusual that they seem to be the work of fiction.

Represents a true photographic pioneer; Birk's medium is inventive and predates the contrived nostalgia of contemporary apps and filters. This innovative collection of images is a standout in the travel photography genre Upon relocating to Beijing, photographer Lukas Birk attempts to escape the sense of stagnation that plagued him in his central European home. He encounters a group of like-minded young creatives who share his sentiment of "nostalgia teetering on the edge of melancholy." Hoping to express that feeling, Birk discovers his father's collection of expired Polaroid film. With Birk's medium acting as a metaphor for the transformation of modern China - its rapid development and the void of nostalgia left behind - this book presents a sense of something from the past interrupted by modern motives, a collision of old and new world visions. In her insightful foreword, art advisor Katherine Don details Birk's contribution to contemporary art in China and comments on his pioneering innovation. Birk's stunning collection of inventive imagery captures the vibrancy of contemporary life, inspired by the filter of his own nostalgia and longing.