As for outsiders "the tropics" are often aim of one’s imagination at the utmost border areas of tangible reality, for the "insiders", people living within the tropical belt, it is trivial normality, where imagination often is directed towards overcoming unpleasant or even unbearable living conditions.
In areas of this planet outside the tropical belt the tropics have achieved a cult status in men’s consideration, as one can observe in malls with its artificial tropical islands and on the covers of guides to dream destinations, have coined the imaginative thinking from paradise to hell, from white sand beaches protected by palm trees to the fearful and abundant jungle with its mysteries and traps, with snakes and uncountable insects.
These two distinctive approaches have been put forward by the Goethe-Institut Colombo to creative photographers from Sri Lanka, out of which 10 were chosen on ground of their applications by Karin Apollonia Müller, the director of the photographic workshop. Karin Apollonia Mueller, a well known creative photographer from Germany, was invited to re-consider with the chosen photographers from Sri Lanka TROPICS, as this term appears to them after a reflective and cognitive approach to it. Menika van der Poorten was the coordinator of the workshop, to assist her in all matters from logistics to creative processes. The workshop wouldn’t have been possible within this short time frame without the valuable assistance of KODAK Pvt. Ltd. Sri Lanka, the Bawa Trust and two photographic studios: Studio Lakdan - and ACME Foto.
As a result we welcome now 10 different, consciously subjective positions on the tropics elaborated during this fortnight workshop on creative photography in Bawa’s Lununganga environment.
Richard Lang
(Director)
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