Betel Seller #2

Oddamavadi, Sri Lanka. October 2023.

^{• 35mm • f/4 • 1/320 • ISO200 • Canon R6 & RF14-35/4L •}

The Big Drum

Mayura Place, Havelock Town, July 2023.

^{• 70mm • f/2.8 • 1/100 • ISO250 • Canon R6 & RF24-70/2.8L •}

Overture to Twilight

Galle Fort ramparts, Sri Lanka. January 2022. Shot on assignment for Panos Pictures and The Global Fund.

^{• 50mm • f/4 • 1/500 • ISO400 • 5DMkIV & EF 24-105/4L courtesy Canon/Metropolitan}

Night Market

Grocery Store, Aliya Giya Mawatha, Kandy. January 2024.

^{• 35mm • f/4 • 1/125 • ISO2500 • Canon R6 & RF14-35/4L •}

Pose at the FOSE

Federation of Self-Employees (FOSE) Market, Pettah. December 2023.

^{• 24mm • f/2.8 • 1/320 • ISO400 • Canon R6 & EF-S24/2.8 •}

At the End of the Ratri

After the all-night colour and sounds of Mahasivaratri, the approaching dawn brings time for quiet reflection. And a selfie. Kaileswaram Temple, Captain’s Garden, Maradana. March 2024.

^{• 14mm • f/4 • 1/40 • ISO1250 • Canon R6 & RF14-35/4L •}

Drum Light

Even the name Ginthupitiya sounds like a Sri Lankan drum rhythm. Our Lady of Velankanni, Kathiresan Street, Ginthupitiya, Colombo. September 2023.

^{• 70mm • f/2.8 • 1/100 • ISO1600 • Canon R6 & RF24-70/2.8L •}

Into the Light

4th Cross Street, Pettah. December 2023.

^{• 35mm • f/4 • 1/320 • ISO500 • Canon R6 & RF14-35/4L •}

Lost in the Fire

Mohammed Jaleel, with his son, Jamseer, holds up an old family portrait of his wife. Her body was confiscated by the state and burned in 2020, after health authorities decided she had died of COVID-19, and that burial would pose a risk to the public. Islam forbids the cremation of the dead, but in early 2020, Sri Lanka legislated a ‘cremation only’ policy for all pandemic casualties, regardless of religious sensitivities, and in spite of World Health Organisation directives permitting burial. On 1st December 2020, the Sri Lankan Supreme Court blocked petitions challenging the policy, and the forcible cremations continued in spite of protests by religious groups and human rights organisations. The law was eventually suspended in February 2021, but too late for hundreds of Muslim families who had the bodies of their loved ones – including young children and babies – seized by the authorities and burned. Shot in Kandy, in January 2024, for the soon to be published Oddamavadi Project.

^{• 24mm • f/8 • 1/100 • ISO500 • Canon R6 & RF24-70/2.8L •}

Voice of Reason

Professor AH Sheriffdeen, one of a team of eight high-ranking medical doctors and scientists who made as many as three representations to the Sri Lankan Health Ministry in 2020, urging it to drop its ‘cremation only’ policy on the disposal of Covid dead. The representations were ignored by the government, which continued the forcible cremations, deeming burial unsafe, despite WHO assurances. The legislation was suspended only in February 2021, as a result of strenuous protests by religious groups and human rights organisations. Cremation is forbidden to Muslims, and the Sri Lankan government’s dismissal of all scientific evidence supporting the permissibility of burial is seen by most observers as an act of institutional racism against the country’s minority Muslims. Shot at Professor Sheriffdeen’s Colombo residence in February 2024, for the soon to be published Oddamavadi Project.

^{• 60mm • f/2.8 • 1/40 • ISO160 • Canon R6 & RF24-70/2.8L •}