Thursday, February 13, 2025

The Evolution of Kasun De Silva

by damith
February 2, 2025 1:05 am 0 comment 1.1K views

By Malinda Seneviratne
The ancient sluice of Topawewa; Topawewa built in the 4th century by King Upatissa was one of the seven reservoirs that were combined in the 12th century to construct the colossal Parakrama Samudra.

I got to know Kasun De Silva or rather was privileged to see amazing landscapes, archaeological sites and human-scapes a few years ago through his many posts on Facebook. One photograph in particular spoke to me for personal and professional reasons. He called it ‘The Maze’ and was one of several in an album he had titled ‘Authentic Sri Lanka.’ It was a view of terraced paddy fields in the Kalthota area.

It appealed to me on account of a lifelong fascination with agriculture in general and rice in particular. There was a professional reason. At the time I was working at the Hector Kobbekaduwa Agrarian Research and Training Institute (HARTI). HARTI was celebrating its fiftieth anniversary that year and I planned to publish a coffee table book about the institute covering the incredible work that had been done over half a century.

Visual cartographers

Liya Wel or floral motif border of cave paintings, Mayilla

Liya Wel or floral motif border of cave paintings, Mayilla

This photograph gave me an idea for a tentative title. It would be called ‘Cartographers of the Agrarian.’ I wanted to use Kasun’s photograph on the cover. It didn’t happen, but that’s another story. The story that did get published appeared in the Daily News around two years ago. I titled it ‘Visual cartographers and cartography.’ I wrote of two such cartographers. One is my travel-buddy Tharindu Amunugama, the other, Kasun De Silva.

I had known Kasun for several years in this way but I finally met him only a week ago. It was at the old office of Studio Times down Skelton Road. I was there to interview Yohan Weerasuriya about the upcoming exhibition at the Barefoot Gallery celebrating the life and work of his father, the late Nihal Fernando. The exhibition, which features some of Nihal Fernando’s photographs along with those of Studio Times photographers as well as photographs, paintings and sculptures of emerging artists. Kasun is one of them and happened to drop by while I was chatting with Yohan. Naturally, I wanted to hear his story. And so we sat on the steps of the old office; he talked, I scribbled notes on the back of the event poster. This is a rough transcript.

History, Archaeology and travel- they go together. They always did for Kasun De Silva. It began when he was a child. He was born in Ambalangoda in 1984. His father, an officer of the Housing Development Authority had travelled all over the island. He knew roads. And so the family, i.e. his parents, sister and Kasun would travel during their school vacations, staying in one circuit bungalow or the other. In this way, Kasun, as a little boy, got a flavour of the island.

Insatiable thirst to explore

Of course at the time he didn’t know if he would come to love photography and that the twin passions of ‘capture’ and ‘visit’ would evolve into an insatiable thirst to explore. His early education was at Dharmashoka Primary School, Maharagama. Having passed the Grade Five Scholarship Examination, Kasun moved to Royal College, Colombo.

Bodhisattva statue, Budupetunna

Bodhisattva statue, Budupetunna

Studies led him to IT and today his formal work is in quality assurance management at IronOne Technologies Pvt Ltd. The heart led him elsewhere. The mind, probably, struck a decent balance.

In those early excursions, there had been no cameras. He just absorbed landscapes, people and things. It helped that his mother, a journalist, did some freelance work for Intermediate Technology Development Group (ITDG). She wrote scripts for subjects such as rainwater harvesting and food consumption patterns in the Dry Zone. So he got some early exposure to documentation and social research.

He had the eye, one might say. He had told himself that one day he would get a camera. That didn’t happen until 2009. He simply used his mother’s ‘point and shoot’ Fuji reel camera. So he pointed and shot. Then, one day, there was a ‘turning point.’

“In 2002, during the time the Ceasefire Agreement between the Government and the LTTE was in force, we travelled to Trincomalee. I was intrigued because I was visiting that area after 15 years. It was the day before poson. We were travelling from Nilaweli to Trincomalee, when I saw two soldiers at a roadside bunker. There was a small hut and the men were raising a Buddhist flag. That was one of the earliest photographs that I remember. It’s lost, unfortunately”.

Looking back, Kasun remembers those early years as being unfocused. “I just clicked if something caught my eye”, he said. So he experimented. And he learned about photography, albeit in a non-formal way. He read a lot. Thanks to the influence of his mother, Kasun became a history buff. Thanks to his father, he was able to obtain the traces that history had left in the form of archaeological remains.

“In 2009 I bought a Panasonic bridge camera, which is something between a point-and-shoot and a digital single-lens reflex camera, usually referred to as DSLR. Then, in 2010, I bought a Canon entry level DSLR and in 2014 upgraded to a better DSLR”, Kasun said.

‘The Maze,’ terraced paddy fields in Kalthota

‘The Maze,’ terraced paddy fields in Kalthota

So he had some rudimentary equipment, one might say. It was around 2012 that Kasun realised the virtues of a more focused approach. He was a member of an online forum called ‘Lakdasun’ or ‘Scenes of Lanka’ where people shared information about fascinating places and how to get to them.

“In 2012 or 2013 there was a discussion on Lakdasun about Budupatuna, Kotiyagala. This was when I read about a team of Japanese explorers visiting the place. I got a rough translation of their article through google. And this was how I came across Nihal Fernando’s book ‘Eloquence in Stone’.

“We walked six kilometres into the dense jungle along a dried up river bed from the Kotiyagala village to reach this place. The statues are believed to be from the 8th to the10th centuries. The Buddha statue flanked by two Bodisattva statues were said to have been in good condition when first seen by the Japanese team in 1985 but the heads of two statues had been brutally sawn off when they revisited in 1993.

Black and white

“The book itself was a revelation. The angles were exquisite. The compositions in black and white – quite remarkable. Clearly, he had taken a lot of trouble to plan or compose his shots. The patience exercised is evident and considering all his work, so too his passion for his art and his preferred subjects” Kasun said.’

This was also a turning point for Kasun. It made him shift his focus “from seeing things to looking for things”, as he put it.

“I realised that there’s a big difference between travelling and exploring. I had walked much, captured what I sawl, but I had not been a seeker of places. Not until I encountered Nihal Fernando’s work”.

He honed his craft, learning much from Henry Rajakaruna, Dr Dinil Abeygunawardena and Hemantha Arunasiri, all well known photographers.

“This was around 2016. They were excellent critics and from them I learned many technical things such as being photo-ready and what photo critique really entails. I realised that whereas I had learned how to handle a camera, I had no style and no focus. So I applied these lessons to my work and became more confident as a photographer. I submitted my photographs to local and foreign competitions, just to know where I stood. When my work was selected, I knew that I was a decent photographer”.

Kasun the Photographer or Kasun the Travel Photographer is now Kasun the Seeker. Kasun the Seeker has sought much and discovered all kinds of interesting things about the island’s history. He shared some stories.

“Once I came across a painting by the mural artist Prasanna Weerakkody. It detailed the drawings of a cave temple in Mayilla, again in the Kotiyagala area. I had been there before but seeing this painting I realised that there were elements that I had missed. So I re-visited and discovered that the damage was greater. The Mayilla frescoes are dated between the 8th and 10th centuries. Within the cave is a reclining Buddha statue while the walls have extensive and well-preserved murals. They were possibly initially painted during the peak of the classical style and sections repainted as the style faded into post-classical. The entire mural is an explosion art”, Kasun said.

One of his photographs featured in the exhibition is of the liya wel floral motif border. This particular depiction of curving floral motif can be seen in paintings as well as carvings in Sri Lankan temple art from the early Anuradhapura period to the present.

“Then, on another occasion, I visited the cave temple at Neelagirihela near Lahugala. By this time I had cultivated a greater degree of patience. I had graduated from the Point and Shoot School. In that cave I discovered something that even the people who guided us to the place had not noticed. It was a three- inch painting of an akashachaari devangana or an angel in flight”.

Eloquence in Stone

He also recounted seeing one of Nihal Fernando’s photographs of Budupatunna in ‘Eloquence in Stone.’ The text only mentioned that they had to walk along the Vila Oya to reach Budupatunna, but wasn’t specific about the whereabouts. Kasun and his friends couldn’t locate Vila Oya but Ashan, a doctor and travel buddy of his had chanced upon the sign Vila Oya Handiya or Vila Oya Junction while on duty.

“Vila Oya is a small river bordering the Yala Buffer Zone and Lahugala jungles. And we walked along that dry river bed and finally got to Budupatunna. And I realised once again what an incredible photographer Nihal Fernando was. We are nowhere near him”.

Finally, Kasun spoke about being featured in ‘Nihal Fernando: Journey and Legacy’ which will be on at the Barefoot Gallery from January 31 to February 6, 2025.

‘This is the first time my photographs are featured in this type of exhibition. Previously I have only been featured in competition exhibitions. When Yohan invited me to take part in this exhibition, it was an unexpected dream-come-true moment for me. This is not because I got an opportunity to be featured in an exhibition, but on account of the honour of being part of an event in memory of my photography hero. I consider this my chance to repay for what I got from Nihal Fernando. “All my work has been for the children of Lanka,” he wrote in ‘Eloquence in Stone’. I think I’m one of those few children of Lanka who were fortunate enough to get something from his work”.’

A few days ago, Manik De Silva, Editor-in-Chief of the Sunday Island told me that he had once asked Nihal Fernando why he seemed to be in such a hurry. He had responded, “because I am losing my sight and things are disappearing”.

Kasun De Silva would never say he has inherited Nihal Fernando’s eyes; he would probably say that he’s learning the mind, the sentiments, philosophy, passion, patience and love that signify Nihal Fernando’s life and work. There’s so much being discovered and so much being destroyed. Preservation in any form helps. That’s but a happy outcome of what Kasun’s true purpose has evolved into: discovery. It’s good he carries a camera and knows how to use it. Looking back, Kasun remembers those early years as being unfocused. “I just clicked if something caught my eye”, he said.

So he experimented. And he learned about photography, albeit in a non-formal way. He read a lot. Thanks to the influence of his mother, Kasun became a history buff. Thanks to his father, he was able to obtain the traces that history had left in the form of archaeological remains.

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