Gender is no barrier

Underwater photography and filming exhibition:

by Rosanne Koelmeyer Anderson

[email protected]

Clown Fish

Fantail Blotched ray

Soft corat

Corial Cod

Honeycomb Moray eel

The ocean’s surface, slow, deep, mellow voice is full of mystery and awe, moaning over the dead it holds in its bosom or lulling them to unbroken slumbers in the chambers of its vast depths...

But for Nishamani Jinadasa whose childhood memories of the Great Barrier Reef had been permanently imprinted, business administration and accountancy did not impede her passion for diving, underwater photography and underwater filming. She was accustomed to the water.

She had been a swimmer even before she could walk Proud of her achievement as probably the only woman to embark on underwater photography. Nishamani, a conservationist will hold her fourth exhibition from June 13-15 at the National Art Gallery along with an educational program to educate the public about Sri Lanka’s coral reefs and the importance of conservation.

A formidably creative person by nature with a penchant for working with children, Nishamani will provide the paint, water colours and pastels for the children to try their hand at painting. These paintings will also be exhibited, she says. ‘Children should be given time and space to enhance their creativity’.

The children who visit the exhibition will also be guided by her to write about the behaviour of fish and ways and means of conserving nature, with footage of her underwater films both local and international being played throughout the exhibition. Nishamani believes that in doing so the future generation will show interest in conserving nature and environments.

Nishamani whose alma mater is Visaka Vidyalaya, Colombo, her dream became a reality when she became a licensed diver having qualified in Cairins in North Queensland as well as an underwater photographer. I preferred to continue underwater photography and thus I stuck to it. She also lectures at the Photographic Society of underwater photography partime.

‘Being single is advantageous because whenever I can find time I could go over to the diving station and indulge in what is most enjoyable to me although my counterparts are men’; for after all ‘we can do nothing well without joy, and a good conscience which is the ground of joy.’

Pix by Nishamani Jinadasa