Clicking for charity
Around the globe while paper ghosts and ghouls are stuck on walls in lieu of Halloween. Shanaya Perera 14 , and her sister Nayantara Perera 12, have also got walls to decorate but theirs is about a theme of battling more tangible demons.
Raising funds for the Sri Lanka Cancer Society through their pictures, the amateur photographers are sorting-through around four years of work to fill-out the National Art Gallery later on this month.
A little known fact is that this duo has been silent clickers behind their web-page- www.photocause.lk. Picking-up a camera “when I was 8 and she was 6” Shanaya says Photocause took off in 2011.
“We still have a lot to learn” they feel, but couldn’t wait to attain veteran status before selling their work.
Shots of earnest eyes staring back at you, wrinkly smiles and fisher folk that speckle this page are captures on field visits under the tutelage of their coach Chandrasena Perera.
“All the money we make,” Shanaya says explaining the urgency, is in aid of the cancer society.
Cancer and its crippling effects have been close from early on in life. “Our grandmother and aunt,” battled cancer and the girls have observed closely the peaks and lulls of recovery.
“We know how chemotherapy works” they tell us of the rough healing process patients fighting the aggressive disease go through. “It is sad,” Shanaya admits, but feeling gloomy is just one option for the sisters. “You can be sad, but it’s better to do something about it.”
Pictures aren’t the only thing Shanaya and Nayantara are good at shooting. National award-winning archers in their respective age categories, both girls started taking photographs for fun and were told “they were good.”
Clicking a shot has come to be almost therapeutic for the girls who are currently students at St. Bridget’s Convent and Ballet dancers in the making. “It’s way more relaxing” than archery.” Sharing a weapon of choice- Cannon machinery and lenses, the sisters have a lot in common until photography is the subject in discussion.
“I like to take natural landscape pictures” says Nayantara who finds beauty and value in still-life. Shanaya’s lens instinctively gravitates to wildlife.
Encouraging other students to share their creative release, they have invited entries from schools around the island to be a part of their exhibition. Hoping to showcase around 200 entries, the girls will show 80 of their own photographs.
This is just phase 1 according to the siblings who’ve got bigger plans for the near future. “When people think of cancer” it’s always bleak imagery that comes to mind, “No one thinks of survivors” they feel.
“We’re trying to change that,” there is life after the fight which can be made easier with “the correct life-style.” Doing their own research, and going by their experience of the illness they hope to visit schools, to encourage their peers to make correct lifestyle choices “even at this stage.”
The girls have managed to tether support from “one of the leading hospitals” in the country for this project. As for updates, we’re asked to keep our eyes on their Facebook page.
Photocause exhibition will take place on October 31 at the National Art Gallery.
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Shanaya and Nayantara Perera. Pix by Indika Handuwala
