Seizing the light
The past through the lens of Kalabhushana L.E
Samararatne
by Aditha Dissanayake
Duke of Glouchester’s state drive from Queen’s House to Independence
Hall to declare independence to Ceylon, on February 4, 1948. |
Aerial picture of the Colombo Race Course taken in 1952. |
|
On an assignment with Sir John Kotawalela, in the morning, which
would usually end with egg hoppers.
|
Whenever my friends talk about winning a lottery, one of the first
things they list in their plans is to quit working. Chuck everything up
and go live in the Bahamas. But not me. As much as I like the idea of
killing time on a beach in Bahamas I know I will never be happy if I
leave the field of journalism. For me it is a matter of "I write
therefore I am".
And occasionally I come across past colleagues who have survived
three long decades at the House by the Bera, without losing their
creative flair, who can look back and say "Everything I have achieved, I
owe to the Lake House". They keep the torches burning bright for me too.
Kalabhushana L.E Samararatne, seated in the quiet, ambient
surroundings of his home in Nugegoda, introduces himself to me by saying
there are two sides to his life.
|
The bus ticket issued to the press on January 1, 1958 by Prime
Minister S.W.R.D Bandaranaike, the day the transport service was
nationalised. |
One is his life at Lake House as a professional photographer. The
other, is his personal life, which he says will bore everyone to death
because so many have already written so much about it.
Grateful for giving me a new angle to focus on, I listen intently as
he talks of the adventures he had gone through as a photographer, first
at Donald's, Maradana, then at Chitra Photos - a subsidiary of the Lake
House, and finally as a news photographer at the Dinamina Editorial,
from whence he had worked for almost all of the ANCL newspapers.
|
September 25, 1959- 8.am. Prime Minister S.W.R.D Bandaranaike
inspects a ceremonial guard of honour on board the naval flagship,
“Prince Vijaya”. Behind him stands S. L. Samararatne, official Lake
House photographer with his Rolleiflex camera. In a strange quirk of
fate the Prime Minister meets with his untimely death the very next
day at precisely the same time.
|
These experiences, hilarious, exciting, worth being imortalised, need
more space and will be chronicled in a forthcoming issue of the Sunday
Observer.
For the time being let this be an appetizer and let the pictures
speak for themselves.
[email protected]
****
Achievements of a photographer who sees Lake House as his second home
The first and the only Lake House photographer
* to have achieved Associateship of the British Institute of
Professional photography
* to have achieved Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society
* who introduced News in colour by photographing Prince Charles'
wedding from a TV screen
* who became the best wedding photographer 1987
* to have received a brand new Rolleiflex Camera from its
manufacturer in Germany for using the brand for over 50 years
* to be elected as the Founder President of the Institute of Sri
Lankan photographers
* to publish a book on Pictorial Art Photography on a grant received
from the President's Fund titled "Learn to see"
|
