Octavia Bürgel is a photographer and writer based in Berlin. Developing a technical eye in photography from a young age, Bürgel’s work in text and image locates a critique of photographic media in its capacity for violence. She is a reluctant documentarian—considering the Archive through a lens of historical exclusion and systematic oppression. Employing zines and digital ephemera as vehicles, Bürgel’s work in the field of photography attempts to reconcile the extractive-recuperative tension inherent to the medium, while rejecting the notion of a fixed vantage point.
In addition to her work as a freelance writer and editor, Bürgel’s critical writing has been published by Flash Art and Frieze, and presented at the Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, and the Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt.