HUMANITY AND EARTH

A visual journey reflecting the impact of development on humans

The result of a three-year long project to mentor a diverse group of environmentally engaged photographers reached fruition in the form of an exhibition. ‘Humanity and Earth' named after the Group itself, opened doors to the public at the

Harold Pieris Gallery.

The exhibition was part of a campaign launched by Goethe-institut that looked for photographers with an ecologically conscious approach to their work. The team was then taken on a mentored road trip from Colombo via Kalpitiya to Ella and back to Colombo. Among other places the workshop participants visited the construction site of the Port City project, the Meethotamulla landfill, analogue forestry project in Belipola, villages affected by the Uma Oya tunnel project and the area around the Norochcholai coal power plant. The exhibition was curated by German documentary photojournalist Andy Spyra and German-sri Lankan conceptual photography artist Liz Fernando.

The participants

Tilaxan Tharmapalan, Shehan Obeysekera, Prageeth Wimalarathne, Munira Mutaher, Sandranathan Rubatheesan, Dilanka Bandara, Ramanathan Parilojithan, Tashiya De

Mel and Reza Akram have portrayed several stories focusing on how changing environments have affected their lives. Ramanathan Parilojithan for example is a photographer and artist from Batticaloa who has developed a story on local fisher folk. His research was titled ‘Impact of garbage dumping and medical waste along the Batticaloa lagoon'. “I stayed with a family for three months and developed a story on how pollution is affecting them. There's medical waste collecting on the sea shore. This has a massive impact on the family,” he said sharing his thoughts with Daily Mirror Life.

Another project was by Tashiya De Mel where she explores the consequences of hydropower expansion on the Mahaweli River and the cascading impacts on the natural world and the local communities that depend on it. Although the river has been acknowledged as the lifeblood of Sri Lanka the construction of dams and other development activities have threatened water levels to drop. “Around May-june when water levels drop you can see remnants of old civilisations emerging,” she said. “So I want to dig deeper and find out what happened to these civilisations, where did they go and what happened to them afterwards. Due to projects such as the Moragahakanda Dam the landscape in Kotmale for instance is rapidly changing. Hence the hidden cost of such projects has not been taken into consideration.”

Highlighting human interaction with nature Sandranathan Rubatheesan took viewers on a journey through a series of photographs he has captured during his travels around the country. An interesting display of captions were also seen. From ponies in Delft to clouds hovering over the Sangupiddy Bridge to hair donating rituals done on the banks of Menik Ganga in Kataragama it was an attempt to broaden the viewers' perspective on how humans are disturbing the natural habitat equilibrium.

Shehan and Munira had explored the changing landscape in Atanwala, a remote village situated just before the strict nature reserve at Knuckles Mountain Range. “We met Agara along with his friend who goes to tap toddy. But their lifestyles are changing with development. There's a road being built nearby and more shops are opening since this village lies at the base of the popular Manigala hiking route. Therefore it's important to strike a balance between development and the lives of these people.”

As a follow up, the Goethe-institut will continue following these photographers' development from this juncture.