Review:

Montage on life:

Frozen beauty and expressions

by Fahima Farisz

Capturing the innermost feelings of a human on camera is a rather difficult task and conveying these emotions to the onlooker is a different story altogether. Mahinda Vithanachchi well-known Lake House photographer held his sixth exhibition at the National Art Gallery, recently. Each of his photographs conveyed a story and had a deep meaning.

The photography exhibition was more like an art exhibition because of the depth with which each photograph was handled. We were ambling in an anti -clockwise direction to the lilting piped music and we could not take our eyes off the photograph of a bearded man with a multitude of creases etched on his face conveying a cryptic message. His squinted eyes held a special gleam as if to say

"Though I look withered and old, I have completed my life's work". To us this is the kind of message that each of Mahinda's photographs conveyed. Since its inception in the early 19th Century, people identified photographs as an outcome of a truthful experience because the camera recorded reality as it happened. Knowledge is gained only by seeing.

The vivid imagery Mahinda had captured on camera of the glistening waters of a river showing a clear reflection of the surroundings held viewers spellbound. It was as if a mirror was held above the water.

At the opening ceremony

The light and the angle he had captured could only be handled by a professional and would definitely have been a tough task. Another photograph of the gushing waters of a waterfall in all its fury, for a moment it was like our eyes were playing tricks."Was this a photograph or a painting'? were the thoughts flitting through the mind. It was an arresting photograph indeed given so much life to the gushing waters.

Photography, these days has turned out to be an absolute commercial venture where a battery of amateur photographers focus their cameras and take still photographs of various events with the plastered smile. Even portraits are with these plastered smiles "Say cheese to the camera" look. In sharp contrast, Mahinda's portraits are of a different class altogether.

Each photograph tells a story. We are sure one could have ambled along for hours and hours just admiring the various angles and scenes Mahinda had captured on camera. Another of Mahinda's versatile photographs - two old men deep in conversation with one another at a paper stall, told many a tale of the vicissitudes of life.

They were oblivious to the surroundings and not interested in newspapers anymore! A veddah in the deep Dambana concentrating and and attempting to fix something...was another photograph that was an arresting picture which told a tale.

His nature photographs told yet another story. Birds in flight ... birds cooing to one another and a different set of birds just staring into space were wonderful photographs of nature captured in all their glory and showing the true wonder of nature.

Elephants in groups, lone elephants taken at close quarters and a baby elephant with its mother were photographs which we are sure would have enthralled any lover of photography. A baby monkey straddling on the back of its mother is quite a common sight but this photograph taken by Mahinda told an intricate mother-child tale.

Canon cameras have always been Mahinda's choice for the 28 years that he has practised the profession as a photographer. Canon AE1, Canon AV1 and Canon AT1 .

The exhibition was a kind of learning curve, if we may call it . Every photograph taught you something - either about life or about the art of photography, whichever you prefer.

Unusually the exhibition started right on time, although some of the invitees were slightly late. The art gallery came alive on the opening day when a multitude of people from various walks of life just stood still and held their breath viewing Mahinda's photographs that were on display. Each photograph was given breathing space as it were! The exhibition was not the humdrum affair that goes on the boards many times a month at the Art Gallery.

In our opinion it was a one-of a-kind exhibition. Montage on life we are sure captivated those who viewed it.