Colours Of Change - Sri Lanka

The exhibition ‘Colours of Change’ illustrates and catalogues the rapid changes that have taken place during the last 28 years that Stephen has been photographing Sri Lanka. From the delicate co operation between villager and nature taken from his book ‘Dharmadeepa’, published in 2009, to the brutality of war in ‘Sri Lanka War Stories’ published in 2008 and the post war culture of construction and shifting landscapes in his latest work, ‘Colours of Change’.

The exhibition examines the spectacle of past and present, wartime and peaceful times and the evolving image that is beginning to create the landscape of tomorrow. Stephen’s work changes as it passes through three decades, creating a flow of thoughtful imagery and a document of our time. ‘Colours of Change’ celebrates the conscience of the independently minded and free. It is dedicated in part to all those who provoke truth and knowledge. Stephen’s books and exhibitions draw on the traditions of visual storytelling where the photographs, silent as they are, actually explode with narrative. This is the trademark of his photographic expression and the essence of his image.

The photographs in ‘Sri Lanka War Stories’ lend voices to the oppressed. In ‘Dharmadeepa’ the passing of time and place is observed, where places, traditions and landscapes are only remembered in the recording of time, as they change, reform and disappear. In ‘Colours of Change’ tomorrow’s new urban, hybrid village is born and change like never before is embraced.