josef chladek

on photobooks and books

Lukas Birk - 35 Bilder Krieg (35 Pictures War), Self published, 2015, Bregenz/Austria

Soft cover, saddle stitched, edition of 500 copies, special edition of 50, signed and number with archival sleeve and threat binding.

„35 Bilder Krieg is an emotional part of my personal archive with images taken by my grandfather during World War 2 and an introduction reflecting on the odd relation my generation of Germans and Austrians has to this period of time and the involvement of our grandparents in it.

Excerpts from the Introduction:
…As part of the second generation born after World War II, I sort of grew up with a non-understanding of its brutality. My grandparents and their siblings were already 70 years old and older when I started to ask questions about the past. The happenings of this particular time were as unreachable emotionally as any other war. Yet it all happened right here, where I was born.

… Exactly 6 months ago, in the house of my late father, I found an envelope with the title “35 Bilder Krieg” (35 Pictures War) written with a pencil. I recognized the handwriting. It was my paternal grandfather’s.

…The images were a sudden access to the experiences of my grandfather – a man I never met, as he died in the year of my birth. He, who, like everybody, was a “Nazi.” At first I thought the monotonous images were flat. But the more I enlarged them, the more I started to understand the importance of the scenes and the stories behind them, and why it was significant to photograph and, in the end, archive them…“

Order at Lukas' site.

Pages: 76
Place: Bregenz/Austria
Year: 2015
Publisher: Self published
Size: 19 x 26 cm (approx.)