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Dunstan: Picture of a polished photojournalist
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Dunstan receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Journalism Awards for Excellence event in 2012
Veteran photographer Dunstan Wickramaratna passed away on Wednesday at the age of 80.
Before his retirement in 2009, Dunstan worked at the Sunday Times for nearly two decades, first as Pictures Editor and then as Consultant, Pictures Editor.
During a career spanning nearly five decades in photography, Dunstan won several photography awards and covered many landmark events including the royal wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana in 1982. A rare distinction for a Lankan photographer, for which he received a letter of appreciation from Buckingham Palace for the coverage.
He was educated at St. Aloysius College, Galle, and developed an early interest in photography, after watching his father, Fred Wickramaratna, at work in his own studio, Fred Wicks Studio, at Kaluwella, and followed in his father’s footsteps. His first photograph, taken with a Kodak Box camera, was the hoisting of the flag of late Bishop N.M. Laudadio, during the Marian Congress. This photograph appeared in the Ceylon Catholic Messenger and its sister paper “Gnanartha Pradeepaya” in 1944.
He was the Galle provincial correspondent for the Davasa group of newspapers. He was selected by the late Mr D.B. Dhanapala for the job. Later, in 1962, Dunstan shifted to the Davasa head office in Colombo and remained there till the Davasa group was closed down in 1990.
He was awarded the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award at the Journalism Awards for Excellence- 2012, conducted by the Editor’s Guild of Sri Lanka.
He was also awarded the “Kithunu Sammana “by the former Archbishop, His Grace the Rt.Rev. Dr Nicholas Marcus Fernando in 2001, for services rendered to the Catholic media.
He is survived by his wife Greta Wickramaratna (Retired Registrar of Marriages) and two daughters, Shymalee and Pryanthi, who are teachers.
His last rites were held on Wednesday evening at the General Cemetery, Borella.