Rethink Beato: From Italy to Burma 1832–1909 — Lukas Birk, 2024

This 2024 volume from Lukas Birk and the Myanmar Photo Archive reconsiders the legacy of 19th-century photographer Felice Beato through a contemporary, decolonial lens. Commissioned by the Embassy of Italy in Myanmar and produced in Yangon, Rethink Beato traces the photographer’s movements across Asia, focusing on his arrival and visual work in Burma during the height of British imperial expansion.

Rather than merely presenting Beato’s images as static historical documents, the book interrogates their authorship, context, and impact — foregrounding questions of power, representation, and exoticisation. It juxtaposes Beato’s views of colonial Burma with local visual culture, reconsidering what it means to "document" from the perspective of the empire. The result is part archive, part intervention — a raw sewn volume with bilingual text and careful visual pacing, physically grounded in the place it critiques.

As with other MPA publications, the book prioritises local printing, language inclusion, and visual counter-narratives, aligning it with the most urgent and ethical currents in global photographic publishing. Rethink Beato is not a celebration, but a necessary interruption — one that belongs alongside works by Vartan Avakian, Akram Zaatari, and other artists who reframe the archive as a contested site.

Title: Rethink Beato: From Italy to Burma 1832–1909
Artist / Author: Lukas Birk
Date: 2024
Technique / Printing Method: Digital printing
Medium / Materials: Softcover with exposed spine binding
Dimensions (cm): approx. 17 x 24 cm
Language (books): English and Burmese
Publisher / Editor (books): Myanmar Photo Archive / Fraglich Publishing
ISBN: 978-3-9504079-8-3
Condition: NEW