Night Market #2

Dry fish store, Aliya Giya Mawatha, Kandy. January 2024.

^{• 14mm • f/4 • 1/100 • ISO500 • Canon R6 & RF14-35/4L •}

Night Market

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

^{• 35mm • f/4 • 1/125 • ISO2500 • 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 •}

Fruit Fare

Kandy Municipal Central Market. January 2024.

^{• 35mm • f/4 • 1/160 • ISO125 • Canon R6 & RF14-35/4L •}

Kottu Dinner

Colombo Street, Kandy. January 2024.

^{• 14mm • f/4 • 1/100 • ISO640 • Canon R6 & RF14-35/4L •}

Refuge from the Pyre #2

Coffin maker, Madawala, Kandy. Shot in January 2024, for the soon to be published Oddamavadi Project. When Sri Lankan authorities finally rescinded, in 2021, the oppressive legislation mandating the cremation of all Covid-19 dead, regardless of religious practice, thousands of Muslim victims of the pandemic were packed into crude boxes and hurried off to burial in distant Oddamavadi, saved from the fires that had consumed so many of their brethren.

^{• 14mm • f/4 • 1/160 • ISO250 • Canon R6 & RF14-35/4L •}

Washing Out the Sin

A young Muslim performs the ritual act of wudu, or purification, before morning prayers. Katukele Mosque, Kandy. January 2024.

^{• 70mm • f/2.8 • 1/640 • ISO800 • Canon R6 & RF24-70/2.8L •}

Evening Walks in Kandy Town

Yatinuwara Street, January 2024.

^{• 14mm • f/4 • 1/100 • ISO1250 • Canon R6 & RF14-35/4L •}

The Devil is in the Details

A Muslim man walks past iconographic Sinhalese graffiti in Kandy, Sri Lanka. Shot on assignment for the soon to be published Oddamavadi Project. January 2024.

^{• 14mm • f/4 • 1/100 • ISO100 • Canon R6 & RF14-35/4L •}

Breakfast in Kandy

Aliya Giya Mawatha, Kandy. January 2024.

^{• 14mm • f/4 • 1/80 • ISO125 • Canon R6 & RF14-35/4L •}