Wilhelm Joseph Burger (15 March 1844 – 7 March 1920) was an

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

photographer A photographer (the Greek language, Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who makes photographs. Duties and types of photographe ...

and

painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

, based in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

. Around the 1870s, he traveled to Thailand and Japan, as well as the Arctic, where he took photographs that have become historical documents and are kept in international archives.

Biography

Burger learned photography from his uncle

Andreas von Ettingshausen Andreas Freiherr von Ettingshausen (25 November 1796 – 25 May 1878) was an Austrian mathematician and physicist. Biography Ettingshausen studied philosophy and jurisprudence at the University of Vienna. In 1817, he joined the University of Vi ...

(1796–1878) in the 1860s. In 1874, Burger operated a photographic studio in Vienna. When working in

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

, Burger used the first initial "G.", obviously for "

Guillaume Guillaume may refer to: People * Guillaume (given name), the French equivalent of William * Guillaume (surname) Other uses * Guillaume (crater) See also * '' Chanson de Guillaume'', an 11th or 12th century poem * Guillaume affair, a Cold War espi ...

". As part of an Austro-Hungarian expedition to Japan led by

Karl von Scherzer Karl Ritter von Scherzer (sometimes written Carl; 1 May 1821 in Vienna – 19 February 1903 in Görz) was an Austrian explorer, diplomat and natural scientist. Biography He began his working life as a printer. After inheriting a fortune, Scherze ...

, he took photographs in this country around 1869, and in 1872, accompanied the Wilczek expedition, a preparatory endeavour for the Payer-Weyprecht polar expedition. A fairly recent discovery has been made of photographs of Siam (Thailand) that were originally attributed to Wilhelm Burger (published in book form by Mr. Pipat Pongrapeeporn, 2001). These photographs, that had been found in Europe in a private collection, were compared to photographs of the same era taken by the Thai court photographer Khun Sunthornsathitsalak (Christian name:

Francis Chit Francis Chit, born Chit ( th, จิตร; 1830 – 23 May 1891) and known by the noble titles Khun Sunthonsathitsalak and Luang Akani Naruemitr, was a Thai photographer and the first to practise the craft professionally. He worked as a royal ...

). When these photos were lined up side-by-side, it was discovered that what many had considered as individual photographs, taken by two different photographers, were actually part of a set meant to be combined to form a panoramic view. The complete set of photographs, now correctly attributed to Francis Chit, was returned to Thailand and is now illuminating a new generation of Thai and Western students, historians, and everyday people as to what Bangkok of the 1860s looked like. In a recent book on Austrian naval visits in Siam (''Auf den Spuren von Österreichs Marine in Siam''), published in June 2012, the author W. Donko concludes that not only these pictures, but a substantial part of the 1869 Siam photo collection attributed to Wilhelm Burger was in fact taken by the court photographer of the

King of Siam The monarchy of Thailand (whose monarch is referred to as the king of Thailand; th, พระมหากษัตริย์ไทย, or historically, king of Siam; th, พระมหากษัตริย์สยาม) refers to the c ...

, Francis Chit. Already in 2011, T. Akiyoshi and P. Pantzer showed in an article published in the magazine "Photo Researcher Nr. 15/2011“ that Burger had also bought most of his 1869 photographs of Japan from local photo studios there. The background of Burgers’ 1869 photographs taken in China has not yet been analyzed in this regard.

References

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Burger, Wilhelm J. 1844 births 1920 deaths Austrian photographers Photography in Japan Photography in Thailand Year of birth uncertain