The Fountains of Paradise #2

Anuradha Perera and Shermaine Willis, shot on assignment on the streets of Kandy, for Ashraff Associates and The Radh. October 2018.

^{• 85mm • f/4 • 1/1600 • ISO400 • Canon 5DMkIV & EF24-105/4L •}

Can We Eat Now?

Sri Lankan Muslim women take ifthar at Independence Square, in Colombo. April 2023. Ifthar is the ritual evening meal that ends the sunrise to sunset fast that all Muslims are expected to undertake during the month of Ramazan. On Sunday, thousands of Muslims, and well-wishers from other faiths, gathered to eat together, in a show of unity that has come under some strain in recent years as chauvinistic Buddhist elements and a nationalist government conducted a hate campaign against the minority Muslim community that led to outbreaks of violence between 2014 and 2019.

^{• 70mm • f/2.8 • 1/125 • ISO5000 • R6 & RF24-70/2.8L •}

Women on the Wall

The Flagrock Bastion, Rampart Street, Galle Fort. In the distance is Point Utrecht, with the lighthouse built by the British in 1939 and, below it, the Meeran Jumma Masjid, a mosque built in 1904, in the distinct style of a Portuguese baroque cathedral. Shot on assignment for Panos Pictures and The Global Fund, in January 2022.*

^{*shot on a Canon EOS 5DMkIV & EF 24-105/f4L, courtesy Canon/Metropolitan.}

Barefoot into the Holy Place

Temple of the Tooth, Kandy. October 2018.

Tea Pluckers, Central Highlands, Sri Lanka

Baskets of tea hanging from their heads, a group of tea pluckers bring in the first pick of the morning for weighing. The best tea pluckers can each pick 30-40kg of green tea leaves a day. Bagawantalawa, February 2014.

Once upon a Time, Before Uber

A farmer’s wife carries her husband’s lunch out to the paddy fields where he is at work, close to Mawanella, in the foothills of Sri Lanka’s Central Highlands. Shot on assignment for Serendib, the inflight magazine of Sri Lankan Airlines. My story ‘Eating Like a Farmer‘, appeared in the May 2017 issue.

Revlon Girls #3

From a series of ethnographic portraits of Sri Lankan working women, shot for J Walter Thompson in May 2018.

Revlon Girls #6

One of a series of ethnographic portraits of Sri Lankan working women shot for J Walter Thompson in 2018.

Revlon Girls #2

One of a series of ethnographic portraits of Sri Lankan working women shot for J Walter Thompson in 2018.

Businesswomen, Maharagama, Sri Lanka

Vendors with their wares in the Maharagama textile bazaar, south of Sri Lanka’s capital, Colombo. April 2018.