It is often said that a picture speaks a thousand words and ‘People Sri Lanka’, Tom Tidball’s new book showcases his all encompassing passion for the island reflected in the spectacular collection of over 165 stunning photos that capture the cultural diversity and uniqueness of the people of Sri Lanka collected over the past 30 years.
 |
 |
| Tom and Sriyani Tidball |
Purina with the book |
“Through the years, my relationship with Sri Lanka has grown into a bizarre love affair, rocky most of the time but marvellous all the time. She has uprooted me, spun me around and left me groping for a non-existent familiar frame of reference…” writes Tidball, eloquently putting into words the romance of his images.
His lens captures the local people across a spectrum of actions and emotions. “The event of collecting an image in a photograph is a relatively modern phenomenon. The shock of seeing a person ‘captured’ two dimensionally has led some cultures to resist being photographed altogether, believing it somehow snatches the soul and robs the essence of the person. Maybe this notion influenced the phrase of “having one’s picture taken”. I don’t totally dismiss the idea, for if “the eye is the window to the soul”, then a good portrait reveals at least something of the true inner person,” Tidball writes.
The masterful writings about Sri Lanka by Christopher Ondaatje and R.K. de Silva hold the reader’s interest. Happy, sad, desolate, enthusiastic…the reader encounters all these contrasting emotions in the book.
Priced at Rs. 3,990, People Sri Lanka was launched last week at the Bayleaf restaurant. |
E-mail