PIX A Photography Quarterly

metamorphoses
THE SRI LANKA ISSUE
vOluMe 6 . OCTOBer 2012
A PHOTOgrAPHy quArTerly
A PHOTOGRAPHY QUARTERLY
is the theme for the next quarter

Diptych 1, from the series Under Construction by Arunima Singh Ahmedabad, 2010 6x6 colour negative
Mridul Batra/Lucida. From the series, Wildlife A Prolepsis.
Shehan Karunatilaka, Guest Writer

The word brings to mind insects. Science book diagrams of caterpillars becoming butterflies. A Kafka story of a man waking up as a giant bug. Metamorphosis is something more than just change. It is a transformation where the after is unrecognisable from the before. It can be instantaneous, like Banner turning into Hulk. It can be prolonged, like a frog emerging from tadpole, as unexpected as a kingdom falling or as quiet as a healing wound. broken becoming exploring Sri Lanka imaginaries:the whole asphoto art is transforming, from war porn to tourist hopeful. Taking its time, some say and brochure; from 2011 volume 3: Octoberthird world mess to Asian happening too fast, say others. It is the dark It is the past becoming the now; the
Mumbai 2010. Medium format 6 x 6 colour negative.
diveRsity, distoRtion, GRoWth, uPheavaL, ReneWaL

IMAGINARIES: EXPLORING PHOTO ART
TRESPASS: BREACH, DEFY, SCANDALIZE, INTERVENE AND BREAK FREE
Medium Format 6 x 7 negative film

VOLUME 2
VOLUME 2 . MAY 2011
galle Face green, Colombo, September 2011, From the series Before Tomorrow by yannik Willing
To download the complete Call for Submissions visit www.pixquarterly.in or email pixels2011@gmail.com
From the psychological point of view, it could represent, instances of anxiety, fetish. If we seek to define our current predicament as viewers, spectators and photographers in a trans-national world of cultural exchange, which are the new frontiers being created by
For more information visit www.pixquarterly.in or email pixels2011@gmail.com
1 3 4 8 16 22 32 38 44 50 62 70
Guest Writers note: Metamorphosis Shehan Karunatilaka From the editor: Mergers across the Border Rahaab Allana
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PIX is about investigating and engaging with broad and expansive fields of contemporary photographic
practice in India, ranging from the application, conceptual standing and adaptability of photography to its subjects: its movement, transmission, appropriation and distinct relation to the allied arts. The quarterly seeks not only to present photography in temporal, spatial or historical terms, but also in personal, selfconscious and aesthetic ways.
outsider
Beyond War: a comment on contemporary sri Lankan Photography Tanvi Mishra Alefiya Akbarally Aaron Burton sPeciaL FeatuRe: Stephen Champion Dipti Desai
Poem by Ramya Chamalie Jirasinghe Text by Sanjana Hattotuwa
volume 2: May 2011
78
Text by Indi Samarajiva sinGLes

ruvin de Silva
Jagath Dheerasekara liz Fernando Abby robinson
82 83 84 86 87 88 89
Poem by Roel Raymond
Kannan Arunasalam Timothy Barco
Special iSSue ON SRi laNKa: MetaMORphOSeS diveRSity, diStORtiON, gROwth, upheaval, ReNewal
RecoveRy: cuRe, ReconstRuction, Rescue, and RestoRation
So how long before our voices crack? How long beforeTHE SRI LANKA ISSUE we come of age? Will Lanka wake to find itself transformed into a butterfly? Or into a cockroach? You wont find the answers in newspapers, on the streets, in the braying of Parliament or in the forecasts from afar, but you may find it in a photograph. A lens can capture a wave unfurling, a frown deepening or a sunset turning to gold. It notices change before we can. Sufferers becoming survivors, landscapes changing hue, tides shifting, and the shadow giving way to light. A camera sees wonder in lovers under
Text by Sasanka Perera sPeciaL FeatuRe: Text by MASii
This issue of PIX seeks to identify with the necessary recuperation period that takes placeafter one is confronted
voLuMe 5 . MAy 2012
Deshan Tennekoon
LAST DATE FOR SUBMISSIONS: July 15, 2012. For more information visit www.pixquarterly.in or email pixels2011@gmail.com
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text the authors. Photographs the photographers. all rights reserved. no part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without prior permission. PiX is a proprietorship of Rahaab allana.
practice in Tomorrow from the application, conceptual standing and photography to All images from the series BeforeIndia, rangingtransmission, appropriation and distinct relationadaptability ofarts. The quarterlyits subjects: its movement, to the allied seeks not only to present photography in temporal, spatial or historical terms, but also in personal, selfby Yannik Willing conscious and aesthetic ways. Doorman Chattu Kuttan, Hotel Galle Face, Colombo, September 2011, Medium Format 6 x 7 negative film
PiX is about investigating and engaging with broad and expansive fields of contemporary photographic
freedom
metamorphoses umbrellas, in abandoned bikes, in grass

volume 6: October 2012
editor: rahaab Allana. Photo editorial: luCIDA, Kaushik ramaswamy, Tanvi Mishra. editorial: Nandita Jaishankar, Tanvi Mishra. Advisory: Dominic Sansoni Design and layout: Arati Devasher & Hajra Ahmad, www.hajraahmad.com. Printing: Naveen Printers, www.naveenprinters.com Front Cover: Abby robinson, from the series Film Industry, 2004-05.
volume 5: May 2012
blowing in the breeze. And transforms the
E d i t o r i a l | 1
q. Sakamaki Dominic Sansoni
Olivia Bonnal Sansoni Indunil Munasinghe Devaka Seneviratne Avani Tanya
Poem by Shruthi Mathews Metamorphoses: With our growing emphasis on
Yannik Willing, Galle Face Green, Colombo, 2011, 6x7 medium format
their own photo practice, as well as the world around them, creating not only a document, but perhaps even a personal history, or an encounter. The notion itself can extend to ideas of an evolving format in photo-practice that they might have witnessed or explored over time. For instance, the images could include portraits, landscapes, architecture, objects, and even abstract forms given the images are submitted as a body of work. Additionally, we would be interested in persons using the camera in unconventional ways, or trying to create an alternative visual language through their own practice. Therefore Metamorphoses can also be about creating a parallel form of consciousness about a subject by the photographer. For example, the images may be in the form of documentary photography, a fictional narrative, or what one may consider art photography, with constructive liberties taken using digital collage or even a digital transformation/manipulation of the photograph. We encourage photographers to work individually or even as a group/team/collective if they wish to do so. These are only some ways in which the theme may be interpretedit is open to the photographers personal understanding of the title as well, given there is a brief accompanying note. NOTE: In this issue, we would like to concentrate on Sri Lanka as the geographical location where the work is produced or derived from, however non-Sri Lankan photographers are also free to submit.
with an altercation, whether social, political, ecological or cultural. The gradual change that occurs in an individuals or indeed in family life in the aftermath of a drastically transformative event, also expresses the diverse ways in which peopleas well asspaces experience, and adjust to life, often expressing their adaptability. This might occur in their interactions with one another or indeed the places they live or work in. How then can photography express this moment, this passage and growth from one state of being into another? Are changes always for the better? or is there indeed recovery at all? On the other hand, the idea ofrecovery, can also be interpreted as a form of anaccumulation, a gathering of what really matters at the end, and hence a percolation of lifes essential impulses that are navigated and often change course, ideally for the better, but at times quite unexpectedly otherwise.
From the ongoing series Bou by Tanvi Mishra, Puri, Orissa, February 2011, Digital
photography from South Asia, PIX is happy to announce a Special Issue dedicated to photography from Sri Lanka. The notion of change and transition have been evident not only in the social and political history of Sri Lanka but also its enlarging cultural life, seen in the more recent Colombo Biennale. In this spirit, we seek photographers to explore the idea of change that they might have experienced in
The early part of the 21st century has been dominated by acts of confrontation, resistance and resolution in the political, cultural as well as ecological sphere. Constantly in motion these essential aspects of life go through cyclical processes whereby the manner in which we engage with difficult situations needs to be creatively and constructively approached. Hence, if we perceive this moment as one that is inspired by a surge of change, transformation and cultural evolution, we could consider that devastating circumstances that cause alterations in lifeare eventually followed by a time of healing and recovery.a time that is essential in order to move on.
At a thematic or pictorial level such an issue could address aspects of identity-change, even physical changes in architecture or landscape, through reportage or indeed conceptual ways of addressing this notion. It is left to the photographers interpretation given there is a legitimate reason provided. note: The issue will incorporate works from India and Japan primarily, with a portion dedicated to works from other S. Asian countries. Last date FoR suBMissions: December 15, 2012. For more information visit www.pixquarterly.in or email pixels2011@gmail.com
recovery
A PhoTogrAPhy quArTerLy
metamorphoses
ages before our renaissance, the difficult puberty that were told will pass.
VOLUME 3 . OCTOBER 2011
Imaginaries, the theme title for the third issue of PIX is about thinking about the creation of images, where photographers may reflect, reorient, fashion and form hybrid compositions as an art practice. Imaginaries may even be defined in terms of the unfamiliar, unusual, transient and temporary. Today, we are viewers of art in a transnational arena of cultural production, and so which are the new frontiers being created and transcended by photography as an art form? The submission may seek to respond to this proposition. Images also manage to create dual realities, at times, disparate ones. Indeed, in a world where the image matters as much as the message, it is important to question whether there is a new materiality in photography. The images could include portraits, landscapes, architecture, objects, and even abstract forms given the images are submitted as a body of
work. Additionally, we would be interested in persons using the camera in unconventional ways, or trying to create an alternative visual language through their own practice. Therefore Imaginaries can also be about creating a parallel form of consciousness about a subject by the photographer. For example, the images may be in the form of documentary photography, a fictional narrative, or what one may consider art photography, with constructive liberties taken using digital collage or even a digital transformation/ manipulation of the photograph. We encourage photographers to work individually or even as a group/team/collective if they wish to do so.
Trespass is a familiar notion, as we witness or experience barriers of identity and geography being crossed almost on a daily basis. The experience can be of people, yourself, as well as spaces as they encroach and break away, from one phase or idea of life into another. In todays context it can mean changing a way of interpreting and understanding the self, as new frontiers are sought to recreate identity. Which are those moments that allow us to perceive or observe a change in the way we have perceived the world? What has been a life-changing image or moment in time?
photography? The operative modes of understanding culture today lie in the zones of exile, secularism, globalization, and capitalism. Are these larger ideas within which images operate? In a broader sense, we are trying to present contemporary practices of photographers in India, and identify the cultural exchanges in photography. Is there a common ground of reference? Professionals, enthusiasts and amateurs are free to apply. LAST DATE FOR SUBMISSIONS: December 10, 2011.
metamorphoses
imaginaries
trespass
METAMORPHOSIS
outsider
MAY 2011
VOLUME 3 OCTOBER 2011
voLuMe 5 MAy 2012
vOluMe 6 OCTOBer 2012
commonplace into the sublime. Under its gaze, a shabby cinema becomes a post-modern delight, a staircase becomes a portal to the stars and the smile of a child becomes a priceless gift. The photograph constructs as it reflects, excludes as it reveals. It says more than it appears to. An elegantly framed window becomes the changing face of Colombo; a crumbling Buddha statue becomes a paean to the decay of faith. We see beauty in the disfigured faces of burn victims and poetry in badly spelt signs. Sri Lanka has weathered tsunamis, wars, revolutions, floods, power cuts and abductions. Today it is a land of blueprints and highways; of veiled optimism and secret sorrow. A land where things are being built, while others are disappearing. It is looking at these photos that made me realise that I too have been transformed. From insider to outsider. I now experience Sri Lanka through blogs, unsubstantiated reports and images on computer screens. For many, who, like me, consume Sri Lanka through a modem, the photo is all we have. An image that can mislead and inform, that can record change and in those rare moments, instigate it. When history looks back on this period of metamorphosis, what photos will they look to? The ones that say that post-war Sri Lanka thrived, or the ones that reveal that it stumbled? A thousand cameras preside over Sri Lankas present, waiting to catch a moment. When fear stops turning to fury and despair starts turning to hope. Perhaps that moment has arrived already. And perhaps there was a camera there to record it. These are some of the pressing hermeneutic forces at play in the surfeit of images arising from Sri Lanka today. Though this Special Issue attempts to unravel an evolving context, a penetrating history and a fresh iconography: a sense of the everydayness of experience pervades the contributions that came in, providing both refreshment and anxiety; the need to move on yet wrestle with lingering traces of the past as it delays its inevitable mutation. Images in the issue therefore erupt from one submission to the nextdisorienting, merging and colliding with the realities arising from political or cultural transformationvisualising moments of engagement, creative departure, personal loss and regained identity, with a generation that values the power of visuals as though it were as forceful as the command of a weapon seeking its target, or indeed a camera deconstructing its shifting subject. Metamorphoses is an attempt at assimilations between identities that have morphed, or spaces of violence and terror, that
MERGERS ACROSS THE BORDER

Rahaab Allana, Editor
Sri Lanka and India share more than just cultural history. We share time. However, PIX would have never questioned the proximity of space to time, if the same time zone could have rendered identical intonations in the passage of life, or indeed, similar
All images from the series Before Tomorrow by Yannik Willing Above: Construction site for a luxury hotel, Passikudah, September 2011, Medium Format 6 x 7 negative film Facing Page: Dehiwela Bridge, Colombo, September 2011, Medium Format 6 x 7 negative film
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Page 5: Father and son, Arugam Bay, February 2011, Medium Format 6 x 7 negative film Page 6: Galle Face Green, Colombo, September 2011, Medium Format 6 x 7 negative film Page 7: Soldier, Arugambay, August 2011, Medium Format 6 x 7 negative film
images. What is the relationship then between photography and the continuum of an age, an era, or in fact photographys connection to geography? Will events alone monitor the inner workings and deeper engagements with the future of image making, or is there an abounding personal sway in the narrative of a street, studio or press photographer, possibly seeking to create an abstract line of sight about the ambivalence of identity?
act as silent testimonies to their own volatile histories. However, the changes in Sri Lanka since 2009, which marks the end of the civil unrest, have been radical, often media driven, and very often with the sway of commerce, seeking to globalise, democratise and popularise. In the midst of this, photography practice has been difficult to surmise as the contemporary itself is infused so much with memorythough the process of ideating and constructing have surely begun. And so, in Sri Lanka, what may be considered War Photography for instance, is a point of rendezvous as well as memorialisation, the remembrance of a space that has now drastically changed, though much censorship remains. What then does photography achieve, when its reception is curtailed? The civil war and its resultant pitfalls that marks so much of the journalistic work from the outside looking into Sri Lanka from the late 70s, lays claim to the present, but there are moments of imaginative amnesia, and creative zest that challenges this past. The contemporary moment and temperament of photography in Lanka, which would have never been achieved in this issue without Dominic Sansonis generous advice and contribution, arises as much from a sense of wondering and reconciliation as from a fresh self-awareness: life has indeed changed and so should the visual culture that propels it. Consequently, the personal endeavours by upcoming as well as professional individuals manages a clear disjuncture from the earlier work of the 80s, as does the sense of candidness when looking at the religious fusion at a societal level. Our interactions have therefore yielded an embrace of diversity, looking always to undermine the despotism and hatred that was once rampant. As is the case with most collaborative endeavours, we would like to mention that this issue provides only one view of the photography scene in Sri Lanka rather than a blanket about the state of photography there as a whole. Neither is it intended as an Indian opinion of Sri Lanka, seeking to achieve its own goals of authority and claim, as the final selections have been arrived at after interactions from within. The true chronicle of the aims and achievements of photography initiatives in Lanka would primarily begin from inside the country, once the history of photography practice has been unearthed, archives preserved and studied, and specific institutions formed to confront the mantle of change.
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BEyOnd WAR: A COMMEnT On COnTEMPORARy SRI LAnkAn PHOTOgRAPHy

tanvi Mishra
Doctors are often asked by their patients about how long it might take for them to recover from their ailments. No matter how complicated the injury, the convalescence period is one of healing, transformation and optimism. But what happens when a community of people, or in fact an entire nation is wounded? For a country like Sri Lanka, that has been ravaged by civil war for close to three decades, one may ponder how the citizens have resurrected themselves, transformed their lives and returned to some legible form of normalcy. On a recent visit to Sri Lanka, the only country I have travelled to that has had a prolonged period of conflict in our recent past, these were some of the questions that came to mind. The visit, a reconnaissance for this issue, was an initial effort to uncover what constitutes the contemporary photography scenario on this island. How was it that in all conversations surrounding South Asian photography, there would be mention of India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and even Nepal, but rarely ever, Sri Lanka? Was Sri Lanka itself accountable for the lack of an engagement with the outside world or was it somehow a victim to a global, political, and cultural amnesia? Furthermore, had its volatile history gone so far as to suppress an entire medium of photographic expression from coming forth? Within the first few days in Colombo, we were introduced to the work of Stephen Champion, who for three decades tirelessly documented Sri Lanka. From the gruesome reality of the war to the beauty he found in banal daily life incidents, Champion developed a visual form that I believe is integral to the history of Sri Lanka. It bolstered the idea that the photograph is not just an aesthetic endeavour, but one that serves as a tool to create a visual database during and post the civil war years, i.e. 1983-2009. His work therefore opened up the possibility of finding other photographers who documented, but also emerged from this crucial period in Sri Lankas history. It was then that we came across Japanese photographer, Q. Sakamakis images on the same subject. Shot over a shorter period of time, he captures the high intensity of the civilian infighting. There are guns and soldiers,
there are graves and there is family; suicide bombers and refugee camps; Sakamaki chooses to tell his version of the story with a humanitarian appeal but with a sharp focus on military propaganda and the atrocities. Apart from nominating Stephen Champion and Q. Sakamaki in the Special Features, the other selections for the issue were selected through an open call for submissions. It was encouraging to see the submissions ranging a wide spectrum of themes, far removed from the issue of insurgency. Almost as an epilogue to Sakamakis chapter, Jagath Dheerasekaras work titled Victims/Survivors resounds with irony as the notion of war comes rushing to mind. The images intimate that there are also other societal issues, other than war, that are associated with violent acts that plague the people/women of his country. His images of female burn victims with masks covering their wounds spark an interest in the 'veil' that some of them are forced to wear. It is almost as if they are awaiting a transformationa physical as well as societal reckoning. Dominic Sansoni on the other hand chooses to introduce viewers to the diverse ethnic communities of Colombo 13. Despite the Tamil-Sinhala conflict, he showcases a community of Christians, Buddhists and Hindus living together harmoniously in tightly packed, bright-coloured Lego-like houses. His photographs successfully portray the lurid aesthetic of the neighbourhood. The arresting portrait of Mr. Srimas, with Christ on one and the devil on the other shoulder; bright green walls decorated generously with posters of Jesus and a sensationally pink interior that marks the send-off of a Christian bride, Sansonis images draw attention to the unusual and curious characters of this neighbourhood. Departing from the social commentary format, Ruvin de Silvas The Dead Girls Project as well as Liz Fernandos Trincomalee: The Lost Photographs, are both fictional constructs. Fernandos images attempt to recreate a personal narrative through her fathers anecdotes. Her photos are like fleeting episodes, momentarily taking the viewer back to pre-war Trincomalee, a place that has forever been transformed, existing in an idyllic state only in her fathers mind, though nurtured once more through Lizs own intervention. Ruvin de Silvas dead girls however, are entirely imaginary constructs. In the format of 4 short stories, he looks at death itself as a kind of metamorphosis, as a process where the spirit leaves the soul and resurrects, over and over again. These images seem to show that process in motion, as if each one is about to disappear in the blink of an eye. The issue also includes topics as varied as the Sri Lankan film industry, the little-known Dawoodi Bohras of Colombo, a graphic interpretation of plants and their role in urban surroundings and a series of single images by different photographers capturing every day moments of life in Sri Lanka. Taking a look at the entire issue, it seems that the medium of photography in Sri Lanka is just about beginning to emerge, on a level beyond mere aesthetic quality. The overall healing process for the country will hopefully provide a greater security for these creative endeavours. For Sri Lankan photography, this might be the time to take bolder steps and work towards freeing oneself from the constraints imposed by their immediate history. This issue of PIX attempts to begin a dialogue in that direction, to take stock of that which has now been composed, and use it to rapidly move forward.
Alefiya Akbarally
Acts of Faith : The Dawoodi Bohras
Dawoodi Bohras are the main stream of the Bohras, a sub-sect of Isma'ili Shia Islam, emerging primarily from India. Their spiritual leader is Dr Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin. He is also known as the Dai al-Mutlaq and is the 52nd Dai in an unbroken chain of Daiyyun. The Dai al-Mutlaq is the Imam's vicegerent, with full authority to govern the Dawoodi Bohra community in all matters both spiritual and temporal. Dr. Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin is the 52nd Da'i al-Mutlaq of the largest group of Musta'li Ismailis, the Dawoodi Bohras. He celebrates Ashura or Ashara Mubaraka (the first 10 days of Moharram), in any one city around the world. Ashura (the tenth of Moharram) is the anniversary of Husaynibn Ali's death. This event is of great significance to the community. Members from around the world descend to hear the Syedna's sermon on the Battle of Karbala by the Dai. Each city or town has a locally appointed deputy of Syedna who leads the local congregation during these days.
All images from the series Acts of Faith Colombo 2007, Digital Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin being carried into the Hussaini Masjid.
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Facing Page Above: A senior member finds solitude reading the Holy Quran, while others prepare for the start of Ashura. Facing Page Below: "Saya", long white jackets worn by the men in the Dawoodi Bohra Community, are placed over the temporary ceiling fans. Above: "Mataam", the hitting of one's chest with one or two hands, reaches a climax during the last days of Ashura.
Ashura Mubaraka 2007 (Hijra 1428) was held in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Being born into the Bohra faith, I had a unique opportunity to capture the images of Dawoodi Bohras during their ceremonial practice of the Ashura.
roads are formed, and almost overnight, vast expanses and empty plots are flushed with food stalls, transportation, security guards and accommodation facilities. Ashura brings forth a spiritual metamorphosis
At this time, a visible transformation occurs in the city that rapidly caters to the swelling crowds, as more than 20,000 devotees arrive in Colombo to partake in the ten day ritual. Massive structures are built, permits are obtained,
as well. The sense of community is redefined and the followers are united in one cause, as devotion and worship meld with time and space to create a riveting spiritual experience.
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From the series Acts of Faith Colombo, 2007, Digital Women await the arrival of the Dai al- Mutlaq, the Syedna at Saifi Villa, Colombo.
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Left: The elders, with limited mobility, occupy the driveway of the mosque premises and watch the sermon on television screens. Below: Bohras enter the mosque premises through the Colombo Plan Road "under construction".
All images from the series Acts of Faith Colombo 2007, Digital Above: A young boy peers down into the mens floor. He stands in a temporary space, which has been suspended over the ground floor and under the first, built to cater to the massive crowds. Left: Burhani Guards, the official security personnel of the Dawoodi Bohras are flown in from Mumbai for crowd control.
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The personal documentary film I am producing, titled My Mothers Village, explores how my Sri Lankan companions are confronting heredity, and offers a unique opportunity to creatively explore my own heredity as the son of an anthropologist mother and filmmaker father. These visual notes from the field offer behind-the-scene fragments from the production of my personal documentary film. In one sense, the subjects and participants are obscured or hidden because I don't fully understand them; on the other hand, I am attempting to exploit the benefit of being an outsiderof potentially seeing things that residents are perhaps too familiar with, and hence may not notice. As a consequence, this selection of images reflects my personal impressions and journey of being 'in the field'.
Aaron Burton
The Distance of a Whisper: Notes from the Field
A few years before I was born, my mother, Sharon Bell and father, Geoff Burton, made a series of three ethnographic films in and about Sri Lanka. Four women, a community of fishermen, and a traditional dance instructor became their subjects and friends. Three decades later, I had the privilege to revisit my parents films, return to the villages where they lived and focus my lens on the next generation of cultivators, fishermen, dancers and family friends.
Facing Page Above: Morning train from Colombo to the cool climate hills of Kandy. 2010, Digital Facing Page Below: Entrance steps to Lunuganga Estate, country home of renowned Sri Lankan architect, Geoffrey Bawa. 2010, Digital Top: Vimalasiri is the son of one of the original participants of my mothers film Dancers Were Only Allowed to Dance, filmed in 1978, about traditional lowcountry dance and corresponding caste discrimination at that time. 2011, Digital Bottom: Chandrawathie is one of the original participants of my mothers film Four Women also filmed in 1978. My mother lived in Kanewala village for two years conducting anthropological field research. 2011, Digital
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Dawn fishing at Arugam Bay. 2010, Digital
Above: Mirisavatiya Dagoba, built by King Dutugemunu, in the sacred city of Anuradhapura. 2010, Digital Right: Standing Buddha image in the ancient city of Polonnaruwa. 2011, Digital
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From the series Deinstituionalisation Ararat September 2011-January 2012 Digital From left to right: Hand basin, October 2011 Baking area, December 2011 Criminal ward, September 2011
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Dehiwala Beach. 2011, Digital

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Stephen Champion
Colours of Change
SpeCiAl FeATure
In this body of work, I show the themes of my books War Stories and Dharmadeepa and excerpts from my new work, Colours of Change.
This is a photographic study created with the passage of time about balance (Dharmadeepa), conflict (War Stories) and the new urban (Colours of Change).
Facing page: Bloody aftermath of bombing, Jaffna, 1988, Medium Format From Sri Lanka War Stories, 2008
Left: Shop full of corpses, Batticaloa. 1988, Medium Format From Sri Lanka War Stories, 2008
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poster hoardings advertising paradise dominate the skylines. Memories fade and plastic flowers in bright colours clash and collide in the new chaos of it all. These are the colours of change.
Left: Internally Displaced People's (IDP) camp, Trincomalee. 1991, Medium Format. From Sri Lanka War Stories, 2008 Facing Page: Refugees returning from India to Tallaimannar. 1989, Medium Format From Sri Lanka War Stories, 2008 Below: Patient at prosthetic limb replacement centre, Killinochchi. 2004, Medium Format. From Sri Lanka War Stories, 2008
The show has been created over nearly three decades from the 1980s until the present day. The exhibition ponders Sri Lankas changing cultural and physical environment, the legacy of conflict and the rapid shift of rural and urban lifestyle. It has been a photographic journey through the cold brutality of war, the warmth of thatch and home long since gone, and the searing heat of the new, the modern, the luxurious and the energetic. The cities that were once villages have been replaced by concrete and plastic jungles that begin to close in on us and fill our days with text and idle chatter. At what price have we traded those carefree days, for the hurry and hustle and bustle, perhaps only to achieve a little less? Even greed is good tonic for the tragedy of war and the vaccuous legacy that remains. Construction fills the air and
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Below: Mother bathing child, Tangalla. 1994, Medium Format From Dharmadeepa 2009 Above: Farmer, Vavuniya. 1994, Medium Format From Dharmadeepa 2009
Facing page: Young man in doorway, Trincomalee. 1995, Medium Format From Dharmadeepa 2009
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Facing page: A9 road worker, near Mankulum. 2012, Medium Format From Colours Of Change 2012
Below: Imitation flowers, Jaffna. 2010, Medium Format From Colours Of Change 2012
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Sri Lanka was once admired as a land of balance and was known as Dharmadeepa meaning Island of the Dharma. The island was renowned for its fertile natural beauty, advanced irrigation systems and sophisticated intellectual culture which drew admirers to its shores from all over the world Today some villages remain oases of kindness and tolerance, promoting the art of living simply in an increasingly fractured landscape and often, violent world In the aftermath of bitter war, forgiveness and reconciliation must replace the hatred and suffering, so that all those who have been trapped in the decades-long cycle of violence, will be free to rebuild their lives and realize the true wealth and beauty of their land and culture.
Text excerpts from Dharmadeepa (2009, U.K.)
Bridal parlour, Kalpitiya. 2011, Medium Format From Colours Of Change 2012
dipti desai
Souvenirs
The Gardener Poem by Ramya Chamalie Jirasinghe
A small bamboo plant is pushed firmly into the earth. It will grow precariously, high above the ground. This is a Japanese Garden on an apartment balcony, its design fed everyday in the gardeners heart. But the gardener has reached out across the borders. Now, no concrete ledges, nor time differences, nor continental oceans can hold back all that is pouring into his temperate world. The walls have burst and everything larger than that he is, is flooding in. Monsoon torrents. Tropical heat. Suddenly the gardener lets go of designs and titles. He dances with the plants. The peat. The rocks. The water. The air. The light blinds him. He knows only that the heat of the sun searing his skin, the rain scouring the bamboo earth, will form their own design. there are no longer hands separate from the plants bodies separate from the land, the gardener is everything
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All images from the series Souvenirs, Colombo, November 2011, 35mm Digital
From the series Souvenirs, Colombo, November 2011, 35mm Digital
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Jagath dheerasekara
Victims/Survivors
Text by Sanjana Hattotuwa
Susan Sontag noted that in one version of its utility, the camera incriminates. But who or what does it incriminate? The subject, photographer, context, or the viewer? Jagath Dheerasekaras photos bring this fundamental question to sharp focus and are
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The photos frame Arendts notion of the banality of violence in the flesh. The women in these photos are clearly subjects of violence, but not from a domestic context alone. The photographers distinct perspective humanises a horror that many would deny or underplay the existence of in current day Sri Lanka. In one photograph, medical personnel are situated in an operating theatre, to the conscience what deep cerise cuts are to the women he framesthey hurt.
All image from the series Victims/Survivors Burns Unit, National Hospital Colombo, 2008, Digital
engage with this violence and its perpetrators especially when either of the two may be close friends, family, relatives, lovers and colleagues? There are no satisfying answers to this question though we may need to reckon with our own apathy to engage with the situation, at times justifying a sense of distance by considering it a private affair. A fleeting gesture, captured by Dheerasekara, is also transformed into a powerful symbol of how prevalent gender-based violence is within our societyit is ordinary, unexceptional and accepted.
contemplating surgery on a grotesquely mutilated arm but are transfixed by what they see. Doctors are not strangers to violence, but in their gaze is a larger questionhow do we really
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In another photo, a medical staff member filling out records occupies most of the frame, but then we observe a hand. But not just any hand. It is a hand waiting for something. Not unlike women who have gone through the most brutal physical and psychological scarring, who then seek justice, this handmarginal to image but absolutely central to the frame once observed waits. There is a bizarre, almost darkly humorous quality to some of the images, which is at first jarring but then serves to amplify an essential humanityeven in pain, it is possible to laugh, including at oneself. Two of the photos capture women in full frontal portrait style. The violence captured here is not communicated by a focus
on a sickening stain, scar or swelling, but through how much they are covered in bandages. In other photos, hands of medical staff clench and point, visual compositions that intimate the dialogues between women under treatment and their doctors trying to help them regain muscle movement and dexterity. It is almost as if the hands are symbolic of an empathetic bond between patient and healer. The photos focus on, but also help to free the subjects. Dheerasekara takes us into a Burns Unit, but whats framed is more than brick, mortar and victim. His photos capture survivorsthose
who endure, and those who go on to live. The photos, on the other hand incriminate society, you and I, for often allowing and instigating violence that creates the subjects in the images. But far from isolating them as pitiable and weak, the photos portray women who are already braver, better and more beautiful than many of us.
All image from the series Victims/Survivors Burns Unit, National Hospital Colombo, 2008, Digital
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Liz Fernando
Trincomalee: The lost photographs
This is a work about a journey through my father's memoriesa journey to a place where the objective of a photograph ponders an evolving interplay between its fragile and fugitive existence. At a personal as well as academic level, my own research into the role of photography in South Asia highlights the different meanings that photography inhabits, often dealing with the notions of memory wherein the personal archive occupies a fundamental space, both aesthetically and practically within non-western cultures. Trincomalee in Sri Lanka became synonymous with the war-ravaged northern region. In contrast, my fathers stories are not nostalgic ruminations on its political history but nave and beautiful little conversational episodes between a Tamil girl and a Sinhalese boy, describing a childhood lived in innocence, free from existing social restrictions. It is a visual journey to a forgotten past preserved in my minds eye through precious oral histories relayed by my father. Though they are at times ambiguous and ungraspable, I have tried to formulate them into touchable and palpable pictorial narratives that I feel are essential for cultural change and social development within Sri Lanka. The text, an extract from a larger piece of writing, oscillates between the present and the past, dealing with memories that linger and continue to haunt.
All images from the series Trincomalee: The Lost Photographs Trincomalee, January 2011, Digital
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The earliest memory. Bold letters. Destination: Trincomalee Early morning on a November day. The whispering waves of the Gulf of Mannar feel as close as the familiar calling of the crows. Every step closer to Trincomalee, the words around me turned into something alien. Fifty years ago, Badra the maid used words unknown to me but she did not speak the language he speaks to me. I excavate into his mind searching for memories... Suddenly he begins to sing; his arms mimicking Kathakali dance movements and for the first time I hear him speaking the forgotten language of his childhood. Pachaikili Paduthu. I dance and sing with him like I have seen in the Tamil movies, my skirt, whirling with the shiny bangles on my wrists, tinkling and, yet his eyes cannot not follow me. I close my eyes but the wheels of time constantly turn around. Dust and wind blow around my ears. I see a dense green rushing past. Harsh sunlight breaks into soft shadows.
*
That voice, over and over again. Penetrating my sleep. Carrying me away. Breathing softly into my ear. Her voice floating from the temple, Hindi words interjecting ever so often. Her voice wakes me, my eyes still bleary; it comes closer, from the brimming market nearby. I follow the small path. his warm hand. We start singing, and his mother claps her hands, leaning against the door at Moor Street 60/3, Trincomalee. Small, bare feet, my own, running, faster and faster, following Chandra and the soft clink of her bangles. I heard the tinkling of bells, fixed on delicate chains running around her fragile ankles while she dances.
All images from the series Trincomalee: The Lost Photographs Trincomalee January 2011, Digital
His dark brown eyes like little buttons look at me and he gives me
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All images from the series Trincomalee: The Lost Photographs Trincomalee January 2011, Digital
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Abby Robinson
Film industry
Text by Sasanka Perera
Abby Robinson's work on the film industry offers a momentary space to reflect upon film, politics and society in Sri Lanka. Despite being in existence for over fifty years, there is very little serious scholarship dealing with Sri Lankan cinema or even the film industry. Sri Lankan media usually only focuses on the perceived glitter of the movie industry, and its decay as reflected in the lack of a well-conceived cinema archive for the country hardly enters the discourse. The resultant loss of historically significant films is often neglected by the authorities.
The bombed out remnants of the once iconic The hallmark Sinhala movie Kadawuna Poronduwa (Broken Promise), produced in the 1940's, with heavy South Indian influence ranging from acting style, costuming and stage Regal Cinema in the northern town of Jaffna which Robinson has captured, places in context one visual frame of this widespread destruction. Though movie theatres are scattered around the country, allowing sets to technical knowhowwas in many ways, symptomatic of the Sri Lankan cultural landscape of the time. This continued well into the 1950s, when the emergent nationalist ethos among the Sinhalas tended to be reflected in film as well. This meant that South Indian imagery, music trends and even technical expertise were self-consciously localised and in many ways Sinhalised. This phase of nationalism threw Sri Lanka into a destructive civil war since the late 1970s, ending only in 2009, and paved the way for the dawn of an equally disturbing set of postwar realities.
All images from the series Film Industry, 2004-05 Above: Take Two (Bollywood director: Amit Saxena), Bedroom Shoot, Colombo, 2004, Panorama Slide Facing Page: Walapatala/Penumbra (Sinhalese director: Vijitha Guneratna), Police Station Shoot, Neboda, 2005, Panorama Slide
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for the popularity of movie-going, the industry has lost many theatres owing to the advent of television in the 1970s. In this context, many people stopped going out for films, which was made much worse by the ensuing anxieties of the lack of security as the civil war raged through the 1980s. For a considerable time however, the varied landscape in Sri Lanka has attracted many filmmakers who now consider the country as a destination for on-location films, ranging from David Leans Bridge over River Kwai to sections of Steven Spielbergs Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. More recently, directors from Bollywood such as Amit Saxena have also started eying Sri Lanka as a viable destination not only due to its scenic splendours, but also due to the relative cost effectiveness in filming. Of late, several Sri Lankan directors have also been winning international awards for what may be called art movies produced in the Sinhala language. But for a majority of
Above: Savoy Theatre Colombo, 2004, Panorama Slide
into the imaginary world they offer, away from daily hardships rather than for their aesthetics or political nuances.
*This photography project was sponsored by a grant from the American Institute of Sri Lankan Studies.
Above: Walapatala/Penumbra (Sinhalese director: Vijitha Guneratna), Make-up & Dressing Room, Neboda,
Left: Aynn Theatre, Mannar, 2005, Medium Format Slide Page 54-55: Raja Theatre, Jaffna 2005, Panorama Slide
the people in the country, watching movies is primarily done for a sense of release or to enter
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Above: Poi/Lies (Tamil Nadu director: K. Balachander), Beach shoot near Galle, 2005, Medium Format Slide
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Top: Abandoned theatre near Galle 2005, Panorama Slide Bottom: Vijendra, Anuradhupura, 2005, Panorama Slide
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Above: Poi/Lies (Tamil Nadu director: K. Balachander), Crane Shot, Sigiriya, 2008, Panorama Slide Left: Jeevan Theatre, Panadura, 2005, Medium Format Slide Above: Regal Theatre, Jaffna, 2005, Medium Format Slide
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SpeCiAl FeATure
Q. Sakamaki
Sri lanka Civil War
This photo essay is a coverage of Sri Lankas civil war in the summer of 2006 when the fighting escalated severely. At the time, most of the international community thought the war would be prolonged, and both sides used unwarranted and unethical tactics, often violating human rights, to get the upper hand in the war.
Above: Tamil civilians undergo military training in Kilinochchi, a stronghold of the LTTE rebels, as the fighting between the Sri Lankan government and the rebels escalates. Sticks and branches are used instead of guns, although rebels have distributed firearms to the civilian population. June 13 2006, 35mm film
Above: The soldiers at the funeral of a general killed by suicide attack. June 28 2006, 35mm film
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Above: Children playing soccer in a field in a war-torn town in North Sri Lanka. Every day and night the fighting continues around their apartment buildings. June 2006, 35mm film
Above: Muslim civilians including a baby, who escaped from a nearby LTTE-controlled village because of the fighting. They stay at a refugee camp at a school in a Muslim Majority area called Mutur, a town in the Northern Province. June 17, 2006, 35mm film Right: Tamils obtain water from a well in the war-torn town of Jaffna. June 2006, 35mm film
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Below: Sri Lankan Special Forces patrol in a war-torn majority Tamil area in Jaffna. June 2006, 35mm film Left: At a religious poster shop in the Tamil area in Sri Lanka, the photos of martyrs, or suicide bombers, are also displayed. June 2006, 35mm film
Right: Family members of victims of the June 15 bus attack mourn the death of thier relatives before the mass burial. The attack was the biggest tragedy since the 2002 ceasefire agreement. The Sri Lankan government accuses the LTTE rebels for the terrorist attack, but the Tamil political organisation denies the allegation. Kabithigollewa, Sri Lanka. June 16 2006, 35mm film
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The shadows of mourning relatives fall on a mass grave, the result of the June 15th bus attack which killed more than 64 people, many of them women and children. The situation in the country is at the brink of all-out war. June 16, 2006, 35mm film
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dominic Sansoni
Colombo 13
Colombo 13 is a neighbourhood by the harbour of Colombo that hosts a thriving, vibrant and heterogeneous community of people. A church dedicated to St. Anthony, frequented by people of all races, religions and creeds is situated beside the harbour wall and dominates the area. It is often said "Kolomba 13, Api okkama ekai", Colomo 13we are all one. The neighbourhood inspires and intrigues me as a fine example of urban life. Along the streets a few of the original houses remain, but most have been converted into larger residencies. The homes are very colourful, mirroring the residents who live there. The community is used to my wanderings around their streets, have sensed my curiosity and respect, and fortunately, many have invited me into their homes. The pictures have been taken over a period of fifteen months. My documentation of the area and its people is a work in progress.
All images from the series Colombo 13 Digital Left: Mr. Srimas Harrison of Ratnam Road, March 2012
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Hindu Temple and Catholic poster, June 2012
A bride about to leave for her church wedding, October 2011
Text by MASii I look after them like my own children; Constant Henry Lucia Emilia weighing 2000 pounds, Francis Theresa, 1400 pounds, and Jean Baptist Edward Anna, who at 950 pounds is the smallest of them. Of course, Anthony Thomasthe biggest at 4300 poundswill always hold a special place in my heart. Anthony Thomas is only rung on special occasions and has a bell tower all of his own, but that does not stop me from polishing him every week like the rest.
In fact, they are the only family I have left and St. Lucias Cathedral here in Kotahena, the only world I know. I have worked here all my life, as did my father and his father before him, going back to 1760, when there was only a small thatched hut here. Anthony is my name tooas was every first born male in our family. Dedicated to the work of this church at childhood, I was named after the master craftsman from Pondicherry who supervised the constructionAnthony Pillai Tittaravu Pillai. My day begins at 4 a.m. when I light a candle to gaze on the dusky face of Our Lady of Kotahena. I treasure this time alone
with her; soon I will have to share her with an unending stream of humanity, bringing their trials, their tribulations and only occasionally their triumphs. Her beauty, but more her patience, never ceases to amaze me. Today is no different. Except that I have an uneasy feeling that I cant find the words for. There is something Soon it will be the Feast of St Lucia and my namesake will peal out to all of Kotahena; all the way till where Pettah ends, climbing up to Mutuwal and eastwards to Grandpass and Hultsdorp.
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As usual, my mind wanders to the past and other happy occasions. In 1950, the statue of Our Lady of Fatima was brought here. Then there was the visit of His Holiness, John Paul the Second in 1995 to beatify Ven. Joseph Vaz. The Universal Jubilee was celebrated with the opening of the main Cathedral doors in 2000.
It happened on the 25th of March 1883, on Easter Sunday. My grandfather told me of the Kotahena Riots, in which one Buddhist and one Roman Catholic died and some thirty others, including twelve police officers, were wounded. . But what point did these memories serve? Why now? This isnt
But the year I was born, Anthony Thomas ran out to warn Colombo of the air raids which caused the cracks on the dome of my beloved cathedral. It is silent today. Perhaps too silent. My disquiet once again rises to the surface crowding out the memories, but there is one that wont let
Left: The bookmaker, June 2012 Below: Home Interior - Newham Square, April 2012 Facing page: Wall shrine to St. Anthony, April 2012
1883. Nor is this Black July of 1983. What am I afraid of? Wasnt it just yesterday I heard it said Kolomba 13, Api okkama ekai, Colombo 13, we are all one?"
go. One that goes back to a time before Anthony Thomas was around
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Right: Christian corner store, June 2012 Below: Christian shrine & Buddhist home, May 2011
Left: Naval Guard of Honour. St, Anthony's feast, June 2012

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Ruvin de Silva
The Dead Girls project
Text by Indi Samarajiva
A few seconds before his scrawny body became highly and bloodily compressed on the cobblestones, all of Andares ex-girlfriends flashed before his eyes. First there wasthe name slippedthe make-up smeared one. She was there, falling backwards, away from him. At first he thought shed come to lift him up, but in the end she was just drawing him in. Then she split into two, this mercurial Gemini, as he passed in between. It was raining again. Sureka was there, in her blue raincoat, looking sweet, if a bit bloody about the mouth. But now the flesh cleaves off her skull, her arms spring from their sockets. She is a corpse, like all these girls he might have grown old withtheyre all dead now, springing from stone to drag him in. The next is Niluka, dressed like a kabuki village girl. Unknowingly, she stands close to where hes about to land, curiously, perhaps expectantly. He sees himself springing back up, bloodied but not unaware. Hes borrowed her clothes. She looks through him as he rises again. He has a final glimpse of her
All images from the series The Dead Girls Project Colombo May 2012, Digital
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cleavage, something green and red, like fire. That last memory, as vision and image slips away. Time condenses into the final essential moments which have his full attention. His last words: Youre just a falling young man, with your young loves flashing before your eyescurious, detached, deadeven undead. These were all vectors to some genetic digital eternity, but now theyre just flickers on your retina, light sparks within your brain.
This image is from the series The Dead Girls Project Colombo May 2012, Digital
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Andare falls, his teeth and skull shattering against the uneven road. This is what happens when you take photographs from a ladder.
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SiNGleS
Timothy Barco kannan Arunasalam

Ravi runs a small tailor shop by the side of the Batticaloa road in Sri Lanka. He has 3 daughters. His wife had passed
Bala Tampoe, the 88-year old union leader addresses a workers' strike in the outskirts of Colombo 2011, Digital
away some years ago and he has to be the father and the mother to the girls. "I was a farmer but because of the War, we had to move. I could not find a job in this area, so this is something I thought to do myself. All I have is my girls and this old sewing machine. Thats all I need, he told me. Poem by Roel Raymond Knock. If you will, you will find nothing. Gaze into my eyes, if you will. You will see nothing. Oh, but I am not nothing; time wrestled me to the ground, punched me left me for dead. Gaze into my eyes, you will see only the locked secret; the strength of eternity.
Tailor shop Ravi Batticaloa 2008, Digital
Memory clung on to me, weighed my every step, etched cruel lines on my face; experience bent me, stiffened every bone, And yet, If you will, Knock. You will find only love.
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Olivia Bonnal Sansoni

In July 1991, a young soldier from the Sinha Regiment earned the gratitude of the Nation. Cpl. Gamini Kularatne, later known as 'the hero of Hasalaka', saved the Elephant Pass camp at the cost of his own life. In recognition of his heroism, he was posthumously awarded the 'Parama Weera Vibusha-naya', the highest honour for bravery in the Sri Lanka Army. On the night of July 13, 1991 over 5000 LTTE cardres surrounded the 600 -strong army garrison located at Elephant Kularatne, holding two grenades in his hands, dashed out towards the oncoming bulldozer tank, clambered up the tank's ladder and tossed the two grenades inside it. The billboard memorialises this act of bravery. Pass, Alimankada. Elephant Pass was known as the gateway to the northern Jaffna Peninsula. Corporal Gamini Kularatne, along with the rest of his regiment, was tasked with watching for possible LTTE infiltrators.
"Ode to a Hero" Diptych: Elephant Pass (Alimankada), North Sri Lanka, May 10, 2012, 35 mm
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Indunil Munasinghe
devaka Seneviratne
"My Wife" Viharamaha Devi Park , Colombo , Sri Lanka. May 29, 2012, Digital
Abandoned bike yard, Kilinochchi, Sri Lanka, June 1, 2011, Digital Petrol sold in Coke bottles, Karunatkerni, Sri Lanka, June 2, 2011, Digital
Motorbikes and bicycles are by far the most popular mode of transport in Sri Lanka in general and the Wanni brand in particular. When you are on the run however, even the bikes get left behind. As people moved on to safer areas, bikes and other vehicles were abandoned. This is a bike yard
in Kilinochchi, the de facto LTTE capital. Two years after the war ended, the bikes remain hundreds of them, with weeds taking over. The petrol sold in Coke bottles are for the lucky few who lived to find their bikes.
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Avani Tanya
Lovers Poem by Shruthi Mathews
Well isn't this nice, to sit side by side with my thigh on your skirt where we don't need to hide. Your Thathi, he's scary (I don't think he approves...) And we shouldn't be touching according to their rules. So let me kiss both your lips as I hold both your hands, under our little umbrella on the kind Galle Face sand.
From the series Lovers Galle Face, Colombo July 2011, Digital
deshan Tennekoon
But none of that. I love you.
The southwest monsoon causes flooding in the capital. Lauries Road, Colombo 3 May 17, 2010, Digital
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photographers AleFiyA AKBArAlly is an award-winning Sri Lankan born photographer living in Houston, USA. In 2011, she won a prestigious Black and White Spider Award for a creation from her fashion portfolio. Her work has appeared in Vogue Australia, The British Journal of Photography, Bently UK and Business Traveler Asia. Her documentation of social issues include work on a cancer hospital, teenage mothers, a missionary school and the biography of an acclaimed artist. KANNAN AruNASAlAm uses documentary, photography and multimedia forms of storytelling. Originally from Jaffna, he grew up in England and returned to Sri Lanka in 2004. His films have been screened at international film festivals and broadcast on Aljazeera. He is also a qualified media lawyer and a correspondent for Radio Netherlands Worldwide. TimoTHy BArCo is an artist from Sri Lanka who is also a photographer/filmmaker by profession. Art photography is his biggest outlet. www.timothybarco.com AAroN BurToN is a documentary filmmaker and photographer specialising in combining digital photographs and video into personal documentary installations. His work intends to traverse the boundaries of documentary, visual ethnography and video art. In 2009, Aaron was awarded the inaugural Jeremy Hynes Award by the Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, for his body of video-based documentaries. STepHeN CHAmpioN, a London freelance portrait photographer during the early 1980s, began photographing Sri Lanka in 1985, creating several international touring exhibitions and three books: Lanka 1986 - 1992 (1993 UK), Sri Lanka War Stories (2008 UK) and Dharmadeepa (2009 UK). Colours of Change is Champions latest exhibition. It opens in April 2013 at the Brunei Gallery, SOAS, London. DipTi DeSAi is a documentary photographer based out of Bangalore. Her concerns about the swift erosion of cultural diversity and practices by the forces of globalisation has been an oft-visited theme in her photo essays. She contributes regularly to national and international publications including The Hindu, Indian Express, Outlook, Le Monde, Paris Match and Financial times. www.diptidesai.com jAGATH DHeerASeKArA is an Amnesty International Human Rights Innovation Fund Grant recipient. His second spell of photography began in mid 90s with his return to Sri Lanka from France. He was a finalist for the William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize in 2011 and 2012 and deals with social and environmental themes in his documentary work. He has presented his work in a number of solo exhibitions, selected group exhibitions and photo festivals in several countries. liz FerNANDo was born in West Berlin and is a recent graduate from the prestigious LCC BA Photography program. Her work was exhibited at Tate Modern London and is showcased by Photoworks Brighton. Currently her award winning work is on a travelling exhibition with the World Bank Art Program, New York. She lives and works in London, Berlin and Colombo. iNDuNil muNASiNGHe is a final year student at the National Photographic Art Society of Sri Lanka and is interested in art photography. ABBy roBiNSoN lives/works in New York and teaches at the School of Visual Arts (NYC). Many projects have been done through grants the Asian Cultural Council, the Fulbright Program, the American Institute of Sri Lankan Studies, the Siskind Foundation and New York Foundation of the Artsand her photos are in the collections of The Whitney Museum (NYC), the Museum of Fine Arts (Houston, TX), the Portland Art Museum (Portland, OR), and Light Works (Syracuse, NY). www.abbyrobinson.com Q. SAKAmAKi is a New York-based Japanese documentary photographer. His photographs have appeared in books and magazines worldwide. He has received many international awards, including World Press Photo and Olivier Rebbot of Overseas Press Club. Sakamaki holds a Masters degree in International Affairs from Columbia University in New York. DomiNiC SANSoNi is a photographer based in Colombo, Sri Lanka since 1979. His recent publications include Bawa Gardens, Mauritius Colourband Incognito. He is also part of a Colombo based collective called Three Blind Men. What Dominic likes doing best is traveling the world with no agenda. www.threeblindmen.com oliViA BoNAl SANSoNi was born in Paris to a French father and a Sri Lankan mother. She is an avid traveller and passionate photographer who believes in the importance of pursuing photography with humor, compassion and curiosity. DeVAKA SeNeVirATNe moved from a career in writing and producing television and has been a professional photographer since 2004. Commercial and advertising photography provides the business end to his work, but his real passion is travelling, documenting the country, the landscape and its inhabitants. www.devakaseneviratne.photoshelter.com ruViN De SilVA wears his heart on his sleeve and holds his camera in his hands as sets about capturing the deeper, the darker, the intricate, the secret, the beautiful and the real. Ruvin expresses himself through photography, theatre and the arts. He is the Associate Artistic Director at the Mind Adventures Theater Company. AVANi TANyA, like most people, loves to travel and take pictures. She is currently based in Bangalore. DeSHAN TeNNeKooN read Law at King's College London before pursuing a career in photography. In 2009, he received a Fulbright Award to conduct a photographic project at the University of California, Berkeley. He is currently part of a group documenting the changing landscape of Kalpitiya, a high-biodiversity coastal area in Sri Lanka. yANNiK WilliNG studies Integrated Design in the Master of Arts program in Bremen (Germany) with a special focus on documentary photography and publishing. He has a B.A. in photography from the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Dortmund (Germany). His projects have been presented internationally in galleries and photography festivals.
Writers SANjANA HATToTuWA is the Founding Editor of Groundviews (www.groundviews.org), an award winning citizen journalism initiative in Sri Lanka. He is a Senior Researcher at the Centre for Policy Alternatives, and a TED Fellow Alumni. rAmyA CHAmAlie jirASiNGHe is the author of Theres an Island in the Bone, Rhythm of the Sea and Trinity. She is the winner of the State Literary Joint-Award, 2011. Her work has been published in anthologies and TimesOnline, 2009 contemporary war poetry selection. She is the Deputy Director for the US-Sri Lanka Fulbright Commission. Sri Lankan writer SHeHAN KAruNATilAKA is the author of Chinaman: The Legend of Pradeep Mathew, which won the 2012 Commonwealth Book Prize. mASii (miKe mASilAmANi) has had his poetry read and performed at venues ranging from the British Council in Colombo and Kandy to the Galle Literary Festival. The Travelling Refugees Circus adapted from his short story The Boy who Spoke in Numbers, was performed in Chennai at the Hindu Metroplus Festival 2011. SHruTHi mATHeWS is a recent English graduate from University College London. She spent the last year writing for The Hindu in India and has contributed to a variety of publications including The Sunday Leader in Colombo. SASANKA pererA, trained as a social anthropologist, is Chair and Professor in the Department of Sociology and Dean at the Faculty of Social Sciences at South Asian University, New Delhi. With an academic interest in urban space, migration and the politics of culture, he is also a blogger, a photographer and poet. roel rAymoND is a mother, model and journalist based in Colombo, Sri Lanka, interested in issues relating to human rights, justice and public policy. Blogs at http://kataclysmichaos. wordpress.com/ and Tweets at https://twitter.com/ kataclysmichaos iNDi SAmArAjiVA is a Sri Lankan blogger at indi.ca. He runs kottu. org, a blog syndicator of over 1,200 people and has co-founded a Colombo city guide at yamu.lk. Hes done TV and newspapers and stuff, but the blogging is honestly better.
Passikudah, 2011 From the series Before Tomorrow by Yannik Willing Medium Format 6 x 7 negative film
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Diptych 1, from the series Under Construction by Arunima Singh Ahmedabad, 2010 6x6 colour negative
Mridul Batra/Lucida. From the series, Wildlife A Prolepsis.
Mumbai 2010. Medium format 6 x 6 colour negative.
diveRsity, distoRtion, GRoWth, uPheavaL, ReneWaL

IMAGINARIES: EXPLORING PHOTO ART
TRESPASS: BREACH, DEFY, SCANDALIZE, INTERVENE AND BREAK FREE
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VOLUME 2
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galle Face green, Colombo, September 2011, From the series Before Tomorrow by yannik Willing
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Deshan Tennekoon
vOLUME 4 FEBRUARy 2012
LAST DATE FOR SUBMISSIONS: July 15, 2012. For more information visit www.pixquarterly.in or email pixels2011@gmail.com
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&
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mary sponsor
self-conscious and aesthetic ways. t the authors. Photographs the photographers. ights reserved. us part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without prior permission. Find no on Facebook: www.facebook.com/pixQuarterly is a proprietorship of Rahaab allana.
with support from Contact us: pixels2011@gmail.com
practice in India, ranging from the application, conceptual standing and adaptability of photography to its subjects: its movement, transmission, appropriation and distinct relation to the allied arts. The quarterly seeks not only to present photography in temporal, spatial or historical terms, but also in personal,
With investigating and engaging with broad and piX is aboutparticipation from expansive fields of contemporary photographic
trespass
freedom
metamorphoses
or: rahaab Allana. Photo editorial: luCIDA, Kaushik ramaswamy, Tanvi Mishra. editorial: Nandita Jaishankar, Tanvi Mishra. Advisory: Dominic Sansoni gn and layout: Arati Devasher & Hajra Ahmad, www.hajraahmad.com. Printing: Naveen Printers, www.naveenprinters.com nt Cover: Abby robinson, from the series Film Industry, 2004-05.
Volume 4: February 2012
volume 5: May 2012
q. Sakamaki Dominic Sansoni
Freedom: As much a philosophy, an ethics of engagement, as an act, the notion of freedom seeks to engage a series of photographs that may highlight how a circumstance, a point of view or even an idea may liberate an individual, an artist, the society, or even a perspective. How does freedom or the lack of it impact our everyday lives? The visualisation of freedom may be expressed through actions, through notions of identity, through forms of resistance, or even through the power of an image - a portrait that may break the norms of convention, a landscape that may have a hidden history, or a candid shot that can alter ones notion of reality. It can be about understanding the self within the larger context of society what are the notions that drive us, that make us rage against known barriers? What makes us free to be who we are? A sense of freedom, may therefore be conceived not only in social, political, or cultural ways but aesthetic formats of
picture making as well, that challenge and open up our points of view. These are only some ways in which the theme may be interpreted it is open to the photographers own personal understanding of title as well, given there is a brief accompanying note. In a broader sense, we are trying to present contemporary practices of photographers, and identify the cultural exchanges in photography. Is there a common ground of reference? Professionals, enthusiasts and amateurs are free to apply.
Olivia Bonnal Sansoni Indunil Munasinghe Devaka Seneviratne Avani Tanya
Poem by Shruthi Mathews Metamorphoses: With our growing emphasis on
Yannik Willing, Galle Face Green, Colombo, 2011, 6x7 medium format
their own photo practice, as well as the world around them, creating not only a document, but perhaps even a personal history, or an encounter. The notion itself can extend to ideas of an evolving format in photo-practice that they might have witnessed or explored over time. For instance, the images could include portraits, landscapes, architecture, objects, and even abstract forms given the images are submitted as a body of work. Additionally, we would be interested in persons using the camera in unconventional ways, or trying to create an alternative visual language through their own practice. Therefore Metamorphoses can also be about creating a parallel form of consciousness about a subject by the photographer. For example, the images may be in the form of documentary photography, a fictional narrative, or what one may consider art photography, with constructive liberties taken using digital collage or even a digital transformation/manipulation of the photograph. We encourage photographers to work individually or even as a group/team/collective if they wish to do so. These are only some ways in which the theme may be interpretedit is open to the photographers personal understanding of the title as well, given there is a brief accompanying note. NOTE: In this issue, we would like to concentrate on Sri Lanka as the geographical location where the work is produced or derived from, however non-Sri Lankan photographers are also free to submit.
with an altercation, whether social, political, ecological or cultural. The gradual change that occurs in an individuals or indeed in family life in the aftermath of a drastically transformative event, also expresses the diverse ways in which peopleas well asspaces experience, and adjust to life, often expressing their adaptability. This might occur in their interactions with one another or indeed the places they live or work in. How then can photography express this moment, this passage and growth from one state of being into another? Are changes always for the better? or is there indeed recovery at all? On the other hand, the idea ofrecovery, can also be interpreted as a form of anaccumulation, a gathering of what really matters at the end, and hence a percolation of lifes essential impulses that are navigated and often change course, ideally for the better, but at times quite unexpectedly otherwise.
THE SRI LANKA ISSUE
photography from South Asia, PIX is happy to announce a Special Issue dedicated to photography from Sri Lanka. The notion of change and transition have been evident not only in the social and political history of Sri Lanka but also its enlarging cultural life, seen in the more recent Colombo Biennale. In this spirit, we seek photographers to explore the idea of change that they might have experienced in
The early part of the 21st century has been dominated by acts of confrontation, resistance and resolution in the political, cultural as well as ecological sphere. Constantly in motion these essential aspects of life go through cyclical processes whereby the manner in which we engage with difficult situations needs to be creatively and constructively approached. Hence, if we perceive this moment as one that is inspired by a surge of change, transformation and cultural evolution, we could consider that devastating circumstances that cause alterations in lifeare eventually followed by a time of healing and recovery.a time that is essential in order to move on.
At a thematic or pictorial level such an issue could address aspects of identity-change, even physical changes in architecture or landscape, through reportage or indeed conceptual ways of addressing this notion. It is left to the photographers interpretation given there is a legitimate reason provided. note: The issue will incorporate works from India and Japan primarily, with a portion dedicated to works from other S. Asian countries. Last date FoR suBMissions: December 15, 2012. For more information visit www.pixquarterly.in or email pixels2011@gmail.com
recovery
Alefiya Akbarally Aaron Burton sPeciaL FeatuRe: Stephen Champion freedom Dipti Desai
78
Text by Indi Samarajiva
ruvin de Silva
metamorphoses
VOLUME 3 . OCTOBER 2011
Imaginaries, the theme title for the third issue of PIX is about thinking about the creation of images, where photographers may reflect, reorient, fashion and form hybrid compositions as an art practice. Imaginaries may even be defined in terms of the unfamiliar, unusual, transient and temporary. Today, we are viewers of art in a transnational arena of cultural production, and so which are the new frontiers being created and transcended by photography as an art form? The submission may seek to respond to this proposition. Images also manage to create dual realities, at times, disparate ones. Indeed, in a world where the image matters as much as the message, it is important to question whether there is a new materiality in photography. The images could include portraits, landscapes, architecture, objects, and even abstract forms given the images are submitted as a body of
work. Additionally, we would be interested in persons using the camera in unconventional ways, or trying to create an alternative visual language through their own practice. Therefore Imaginaries can also be about creating a parallel form of consciousness about a subject by the photographer. For example, the images may be in the form of documentary photography, a fictional narrative, or what one may consider art photography, with constructive liberties taken using digital collage or even a digital transformation/ manipulation of the photograph. We encourage photographers to work individually or even as a group/team/collective if they wish to do so.
Trespass is a familiar notion, as we witness or experience barriers of identity and geography being crossed almost on a daily basis. The experience can be of people, yourself, as well as spaces as they encroach and break away, from one phase or idea of life into another. In todays context it can mean changing a way of interpreting and understanding the self, as new frontiers are sought to recreate identity. Which are those moments that allow us to perceive or observe a change in the way we have perceived the world? What has been a life-changing image or moment in time?
photography? The operative modes of understanding culture today lie in the zones of exile, secularism, globalization, and capitalism. Are these larger ideas within which images operate? In a broader sense, we are trying to present contemporary practices of photographers in India, and identify the cultural exchanges in photography. Is there a common ground of reference? Professionals, enthusiasts and amateurs are free to apply. LAST DATE FOR SUBMISSIONS: December 10, 2011.
imaginaries metamorphoses
trespass
outsider
MAY 2011
VOLUME 3 OCTOBER 2011
voLuMe 5 MAy 2012
vOluMe 6 OCTOBer 2012
recovery
RecoveRy: cuRe, ReconstRuction, Rescue and RestoRation with an altercation, whether social, political, ecological or cultural. The gradual change that occurs in an individuals or in family life in the aftermath of a drastically transformative event, also expresses the diverse ways in which people as well as spaces experience, and adjust to life, often expressing their adaptability. This might occur in their interactions with one another or the places they live or work in. How, then, can photography express this moment, this passage and growth from one state of being into another? Are changes always for the better? or is there indeed recovery at all? On the other hand, the idea ofrecovery, can also be interpreted as a form of anaccumulation, a gathering of what really matters at the end, and hence a percolation of lifes essential impulses that are navigated and often change course, ideally for the better, but at times quite unexpectedly otherwise.
The early part of the 21st century has been dominated by acts of confrontation, resistance and resolution in the political, cultural as well as ecological sphere. Constantly in motion, these essential aspects of life go through cyclical processes whereby the manner in which we engage with difficult situations needs to be creatively and constructively approached. Hence, if we perceive this moment as one that is inspired by a surge of change, transformation and cultural evolution, we could consider that devastating circumstances that cause alterations in life are eventually followed by a time of healing and recovery.a time that is essential in order to move on. This issue of PIX seeks to identify with the necessary recuperation period that takes place after one is confronted
At a thematic or pictorial level such an issue could address aspects of identitychange, even physical changes in architecture or landscape, through reportage or even conceptual ways of addressing this notion. It is left to the photographers interpretation given there is a legitimate reason provided.
note: The issue will incorporate works from India and Japan primarily, with a portion dedicated to works from other S. Asian countries. Last date FoR suBMissions: December 15, 2012. For more information visit www.pixquarterly.in or email pixels2011@gmail.com
with support from

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metamorphoses

THE SRI LANKA ISSUE

vOluMe 6 . OCTOBer 2012

is the theme for the next quarter

is the theme for the next quarter

Mridul Batra/Lucida. From the series, Wildlife A Prolepsis.

Shehan Karunatilaka, Guest Writer

Mumbai 2010. Medium format 6 x 6 colour negative.

diveRsity, distoRtion, GRoWth, uPheavaL, ReneWaL

TRESPASS: BREACH, DEFY, SCANDALIZE, INTERVENE AND BREAK FREE

Medium Format 6 x 7 negative film

VOLUME 2 . MAY 2011

For more information visit www.pixquarterly.in or email pixels2011@gmail.com

with support from

volume 2: May 2011

Text by Indi Samarajiva sinGLes

is the theme for the next quarter

Jagath Dheerasekara liz Fernando Abby robinson

Poem by Roel Raymond

Kannan Arunasalam Timothy Barco

RecoveRy: cuRe, ReconstRuction, Rescue, and RestoRation

Text by Sasanka Perera sPeciaL FeatuRe: Text by MASii

voLuMe 5 . MAy 2012

with support from

with support from

with support from

metamorphoses umbrellas, in abandoned bikes, in grass

volume 5: May 2012

blowing in the breeze. And transforms the

vOluMe 6 . OCTOBer 2012

q. Sakamaki Dominic Sansoni

Olivia Bonnal Sansoni Indunil Munasinghe Devaka Seneviratne Avani Tanya

Poem by Shruthi Mathews Metamorphoses: With our growing emphasis on

VOLUME 3 . OCTOBER 2011

VOLUME 3 OCTOBER 2011

vOluMe 6 OCTOBer 2012

MERGERS ACROSS THE BORDER

BEyOnd WAR: A COMMEnT On COnTEMPORARy SRI LAnkAn PHOTOgRAPHy

Dawn fishing at Arugam Bay. 2010, Digital

Dehiwala Beach. 2011, Digital

From the series Souvenirs, Colombo, November 2011, 35mm Digital

Page 70 Bottom: Holy Pictures, October 2011

Hindu Temple and Catholic poster, June 2012

A bride about to leave for her church wedding, October 2011

Left: Naval Guard of Honour. St, Anthony's feast, June 2012

Timothy Barco kannan Arunasalam

Olivia Bonnal Sansoni

is the theme for the next quarter

is the theme for the next quarter

Mridul Batra/Lucida. From the series, Wildlife A Prolepsis.

Mumbai 2010. Medium format 6 x 6 colour negative.

diveRsity, distoRtion, GRoWth, uPheavaL, ReneWaL

TRESPASS: BREACH, DEFY, SCANDALIZE, INTERVENE AND BREAK FREE

Medium Format 6 x 7 negative film

VOLUME 2 . MAY 2011

For more information visit www.pixquarterly.in or email pixels2011@gmail.com

Guest Writers note: Metamorphosis Shehan Karunatilaka

with support from

imaginaries: exploring photo art

volume 2: May 2011

is the theme for the next quarter

is the theme for the next quarter

is the theme for the next quarter

Poem by Ramya Chamalie Jirasinghe Text by Sanjana Hattotuwa