Fish & Jack

Wekanda Road, Slave Island. April 2024.

^{• 25mm • f/4 • 1/400 • ISO200 • Canon R6 & RF14-35/4L •}

Aunty Power

Female devotees line up to pull one of the heavy temple chariots at the Mayurapathi Sri Badrakali Kovil Ther festival. Havelock Town, Colombo. July 2023.

^{• 24mm • f/2.8 • 1/640 • ISO100 • Canon R6 & RF24-70/2.8L •}

Roshi

Colombo, March 2024.

^{• 70mm • f/2.8 • 1/40 • ISO100 • Canon R6 & RF24-70/2.8L •}

Angie

Colombo, March 2024.

^{• 70mm • f/2.8 • 1/40 • ISO100 • Canon R6 & RF24-70/2.8L •}

Victims of the Fire

In her little Maligawatte home, Nona Farida describes how the body of her husband was confiscated by the state and burned in 2020, after health authorities decided he 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 babies as young as three weeks – seized by the authorities and burned. Shot in December 2023, for the soon to be published Oddamavadi Project.

^{• 70mm • f/2.8 • 1/100 • ISO800 • Canon R6 & RF24-70/2.8L •}

The Widow

Ferial Ashraff; former National Unity Alliance member of parliament, minister in the Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunge government, and widow of the NUA and Sri Lanka Muslim Congress founder, MHM Ashraff. Colombo, February 2024.

^{• 70mm • f/2.8 • 1/320 • ISO100 • Canon R6 & RF24-70/2.8L •}

Happy Day

Wedding couple on York Street, in the Colombo Fort. February 2024.

^{• 58mm • f/2.8 • 1/800 • ISO400 • Canon R6 & KMZ Helios 44-2 58/2 •}

Evening Walks in Kandy Town

Yatinuwara Street, January 2024.

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

Bata Slipper Sundays in Colombo

Reid Avenue, Cinnamon Gardens. February 2024.

^{• 70mm • f/2.8 • 1/1600 • ISO125 • Canon R6 & RF24-70/2.8L •}

Banana Amma

FOSE Market, Pettah. November 2023.

^{• 15mm • f/2.8 • 1/160 • ISO200 • Canon R6, with an RF15-35/2.8L courtesy Canon/Metropolitan}