The commencement of the Humanity & Earth Group photography exhibition at the Harold Peiris Gallery in September 2020 marks the conclusion of the three-year project in which the Goethe-Institut Sri Lanka engaged with two experienced photographers from Germany who mentored a small and diverse group of environmentally engaged photographers from different parts of Sri Lanka.
In 2018, the Goethe-Institut Sri Lanka recognized that more and more emerging photographers were pointing their cameras and mobile phones toward ecological grievances and highlighting mounting, unresolved conflicts between humanity striving for development and the natural environment.
The mentors, German documentary photojournalist Andy Spyra and German-Sri Lankan conceptual photography artist Liz Fernando, each coming from very different approaches to their discipline provided a wide spectrum of advice, ideas, inspiration and challenges to the group. Over the extended exchange of nearly three years many breathtaking and revealing images were captured and stories composed. ‘Humanity and Earth’ cannot ever be about a single photograph as an impressive object. The mentorship and curatorial idea behind this exhibition, is to give way to the collective thought process embedded historically in the camera’s greatest tool; it always enabled us to see things that cannot be seen with the naked eye and therefore brings us closer to the ‘optical consciousness’ our current times are asking us for.
Photography by:
Tashiya de Mel
Munira Mutaher
Shehan Obeysekera
Ramanathan Parilojithan
Sandranathan Rubatheesan
Tharmapalan Tilaxan
Curated by:
Andy Spyra & Liz Fernando
Image Credit: Tilaxan Tharmapalan
Copyright: Goethe-Institut Sri Lanka
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