These are not dewdrops of Jaffna:

Fascinating photographs for the hoi polloi

by Husna Inayathullah

As a photographer who has won the trust and love of all communities Nayanahari Abeynayake from Galle loves to travel around and associate with people across and capture human portraits.

As a student Abeynayake photographed human portraits with human feelings.

She studied the nuances of photography at the Hegoda School of Photography under the direct supervision of Lal Hegoda.

As she got the opportunity to associate with Tamil friends, she felt like travelling to Jaffna.

This evoked a great change in her photographic endeavour. She captured photographs of the people in Jaffna.

Through her photographs, she tries to portray the living condition, nature and feelings of the people in the North. She tries to portray that everybody is equal despite race and religion.

She said photography became her interest due to her sister who was already engaged in it.

The first camera that she used was Nikon D50 which was presented to her by her sister who did not continue with photography.

At present she says that she uses a Nikon D7000 SLR digital camera for her photography.

Nayanahari has worked as a volunteer counsellor for The World Health Organisation after the tsunami in 2004 for the women and children who were affected. While she was working with them it inspired her to capture human portraits which displayed a lot of feelings.

“If I get the medal from the people, that is the greatest achievement that I can gain,” Nayanahari said. She said, “While capturing photographs, I get so much of happiness and it cannot be bought by money. By associating with people, I learn a lot about life.

The photographs that I am exhibiting this year portrays the simple lifestyle of people in the North and the peace and harmony between the communities. Abeynayake will hold a photographic exhibition show- casing her talent based on the theme “These are not dewdrops of Jaffna” comprising portraits.

The exhibition will be held at the Lionel Wendt Art Gallery, Colombo 7 on June 19 at 6.30 p.m.

The exhibition will be opened by film-maker Prasanna Vithanage. This is the fourth in the series of her exhibitions.

The former exhibitions were held mainly for foreigners. She speaks French and German to communicate with them.

This year, she said it is going to be quite different because her exhibition is for the masses.