1. What is your earliest memory of how or what attracted you to photography?
My first memories are that of the cinematic visuals which were at the age of three watching Charlie Chaplin and Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds. An unusual choice, however I was mesmerized by the power of those images, in this case the moving image and also scared of birds for the next few years, such were the impressions.
Later in my professional years, it was war photographer James Nachtwey and reading Susan Sontag’s Regarding the Pain of Others – these are influences that have engrained themselves in my thinking and approach due to their power in message.
2. Please share with us your experience of doing the B.A. Photography program at the University of Arts, London, and how this education has informed your practice.
It was an interesting beginning, as I actually did not even know how prestigious the institution was in terms of studying photography. It was also never really my goal to go for the most prestigious place. I actually just looked out for a place that confirmed my approach, which at that time was to achieve a humble understanding of the medium. The scope did unfold during the first year of my studies – critical reflections and understanding the medium to its very philosophical grid with mentors dedicated to challenge us and question us continuously. Looking back, I think I spent more time looking actually at writings about photography than at the object itself; the fact that we are given more room and space for reading is maybe the strength of the BA program.
3. Do you think it is important to receive formal training in photography?
I would definitely always encourage someone to follow the formal way, whenever possible. There is a lot to learn by ‘doing’; however, a formal understanding, at least in my opinion, gives a bird’s eye perspective. I am not saying that the formal educated one is a better photographer; all I am saying is that, in my experience, an education in photography gives a greater understanding of the medium.
4. If you were to design a photo program for young Sri Lankan photographers, what would it look like? Would it be a degree course? Workshop format? Mentorship?
Currently there is no academic training in photography in Sri Lanka, which is to my understanding also visible in the general practice on the island. Therefore, I would always aim for a non-private, full-time degree course. An academic backbone and syllabus would enable academicians to work on a good foundation and engage a larger group of students.
I have been conducting a three-years long, fully-fledged mentorship program along with a colleague of mine from Germany for six young talents in Sri Lanka, powered by the local Goethe-Institute. This shows how eager young students are to receive an education in photography and to have a platform to be able to network.
5. You grew up in Berlin and then went on to study in Switzerland and London before moving to Sri Lanka to work as an artist. How did all these cultures find a place in your art practice?
My journey, and perhaps my upbringing as well, are very complex and layered. I was born in Germany where I grew up as well, which means since a very early age I grew in between at least two cultures. I studied in Zurich, Geneva, and later in London with my roots in Sri Lanka. I guess there was already a lot of autobiographical data that formed me into a complex person and also an artist and this was also a passage that led to a lot of questions, loss, and longing. However, what connects artists or in general people with similar backgrounds, is that we learn to develop a unique language also in visual terms, which is difficult to dissect and also to categorize and this is what builds the foundation for my practice – a unique view / standpoint, a versatile approach and a hybrid personality.
I have learned to adapt quickly in my life and in terms of stages in my career, it is very visible how I am coming to terms with this sense of longing and loss. This perhaps is the most visible aspect in the development of the body of my work Trincomalee. This work started with a rather very emotional and personal approach, which was in its authenticity important as a start, and over the years it developed more depth and universality. For example, going far back to the beginning of my studies, I started my education and academic training in Zurich at the University of Arts, where I studied Foundation in Arts & Design. The influence of many of my mentors remained with me, especially their high standards of teaching and also of those mentors who were mostly very influential within typographic design that Switzerland is world famous for.
My love for typographic design and its theory remained with me and I do feel it’s visible in my works. I could have not wished for a better education and foundation. The inclusion of writing is maybe in reflection, a complex combination of experimentation, referring to the above and also instinct or rather also an inheritance. My grandfather was, what we would describe in modern day terms an intellectual bohemian – he was fluent in writing, reading, and speaking in the three official languages of colonial Sri Lanka and was involved with writing during all his life. His love for literature was passed on to all children around him.
6. Your project Trincomalee started as a hand-bound artist book in 2011, working on the notions of memory and nostalgia, using research and archives, and you continue to work on this. How, over the years, has this project has evolved?
Yes, it started with the book that was developed during my final year at university and for my degree show. It is the result of more than two years of research and professionally mentored development with my designated tutor at that time. The photographs were shot in partly original settings of my father’s vague memories. This work kept on developing since it was collected, while it traveled around the world and kept on raising viewers’ interests and led to exchange with viewers.
As my development as an artist evolved, so did this project, as it is one of my earliest works. Over the years, my aim became to extract the complex writings that were unfolding in the book; and to make it more visible, approachable, and more palpable within a gallery set up on the wall.
The development of the work also mirrors my personal reflection with my own discourse on identity. I had taken out certain parts of the book on which I used an ancient technique to emboss texts myself and assemble memory through a mechanism assembling each and every single letter to transform that memory again into an object. To read the text, the viewer needs to come very close to the frame, since from afar it looks like an empty blank frame – this performative act of approaching re-enacts the search for those frail memories and assembling it and all of the sudden one sees these fragments forming one coherent narrative.
7. In your work Trincomalee, you say that you are looking at photography from a non-western perspective. Please elaborate on this.
This is actually valid for my entire practice and perhaps started with Trincomalee and is rooted in my formal education. One of the mentors during my studies at LCC / University of Arts London and also the surroundings at Elephant & Castle, Camberwell and Brixton were the trigger to this realization. This lecturer raised my interest in the widely known and discussed term of Orientalism and the discussion around the fingerprints of Orientalism embedded mostly in anthropological photography, caught and fascinated me from that time onwards. Though it is discussed widely in academic terms, especially the understanding on photography and to read it with this specific magnifying lens, I always felt it is perhaps discussed in South Asia itself but rarely applied in practice.
There was also this famous exhibition Where Three Dreams Cross at Whitechapel Gallery in 2011 during my university days with photographers from the three countries – Bangladesh, Pakistan, and India. What remained with me besides the fantastic selection of photographers was the widely implied categories i.e. portrait photography, landscape etc. didn’t match exactly with the categories we understand from a Western understanding of photography which in a way leads us to try to understand the conflict of partition with the help of those terms.
My attempt was to focus on distinguishing between the medium as a Western invention and its application in the global South region. One major topic was of course that of the archives, which to my understanding needed to be discussed within the global South, in terms of who manufactured those archives, with what purpose and what effect they have on Southern identities.
In a more academic reading, I hope also that viewers will sensitively understand the discourse around the different meaning the notion of memory and interconnected photography inhabits in different cultures; and the awareness to read archives, be it family visual archives or national archives in a more enlightened manner.
8. Your experience of photography is that of a “very frail object” in the context of decay and preservation and archiving. Please elaborate on this.
I grew with very little visual proof of my own family history, in a Western surrounding, where preservation is not such a great challenge like it is in the South Asian region which is caused by humidity and other general conditions. Year after year, I would travel to South Asia and witness the decay of visual family archives and I would be left with that impression of photography being transformed; where in our general understanding of taking pictures is to capture a certain memory and rely on that photograph to carry forward that memory within. That aim is not applicable the moment we leave the Western hemisphere.
9. You are a ‘photographer,’ however you say that you don’t ‘trust photography a lot.’ Can you explain what you mean by this?
My response to this is in continuation to the above answer. I have always questioned the archive, the image, and the photograph as proof since I always looked at the complexity of the making of a photograph. One example in point is that of the South Asian archives that are always a tricky thing to my understanding; I am aware that they were produced for a certain purpose, by photographers who were most of the time strangers to the surroundings. Therefore, I feel there must be lots of visual information that is missing, or the photographers did not invest themselves in this oeuvre. When I travel to a foreign country, I too tend to view things in a different way and so there is no difference with archives or the past; it is a highly subjective method and never objective since there is always a human being behind the lens.
10. Who or what has inspired you to pursue photography and/or continues to do so?
Kind of again going back to my formative years at university, precisely the mentors at my time spent in Zurich at the University of Arts, who observed that I work very differently with the camera. I never actually intended to study photography. I was instead more interested in Architecture and Industrial Design. My tutors saw how I documented my work samples in the 3D classes with the camera and kind of focused with me on the development of my visual language. I guess they were just very good professors who noticed that I had a photographic eye. Later on, it was mainly the writings mentioned by Susan Sontag and Umberto Eco and the works by photographer James Nachtwey.
11. Is there a book, exhibition or body of work that has really impressed you and maybe influenced your work / life?
I have also had a fascination to look at certain subtle fashion aesthetics and practices of women artists like Sophie Calle, Deborah Turbeville, and Mary Ellen Mark and weave those aesthetics into my conceptual work and methodology.
12. What draws / drew you to the subject matter you are pursuing in your current work?
My process and subject matter are always very research heavy. I indulge in a lot of reading, listening, observing and seeing other artists’ works and conversations with artist colleagues, attending seminars and conferences. I would describe my process also as less visual based. The visual execution always comes last in my work; initially, it is just the idea. It is the link between anthropology and photography that I am personally interested in and how these two vast fields are interdependent and how they influence contemporary identities.
13. Do your projects typically run in parallel, or do you focus on one project at a time?
I prefer to focus on one single project at a time as I actually work best while focusing on only one, however practically that is not always possible. I am not great at multitasking and also as I elaborated earlier, all my projects are quite research heavy. Once I delve into researching a certain idea, it’s quite difficult to put my attention to anything else. I do have breaks between works and they are most of the times used for travel or to develop new foundations for new projects.
14. How do you measure success or that a body of work is going well? Do you share it with colleagues or others? Your own sense of it?
This is a difficult one to answer, to be honest. I think for me it’s important to see when people and viewers are moved and reflect and want to engage further. Also, when a body of work travels around the globe and reaches so many different viewers, that is very satisfying. Success sometimes also means good sales since we have to make a living as well, however that is not the ultimate measure of success.
15. Do you ever find yourself creatively ‘stuck?’ Is there something that is particularly helpful to you in overcoming this?
Yes of course, and that happens I guess almost to everyone I know. Those times are challenging as I never really know when ideas will happen or the spirit will come back. What usually helps is a short trip to the sea. Visits to museums and show openings, reading and making notes help too. Sometimes, at a later stage, ideas emerge from these very notes.
16. Do you feel that there are adequate opportunities and avenues to share / show your work in your home country, or do you always look for such opportunities abroad?
In my case, I must admit that I come from a different position as I grew with the notion that there is no place I would call ‘home.’ This is perhaps because of my biography, and that in my thinking there are less geographical borders and boundaries. In any case, I kind of understand the question also in the way of a comparison between locations like Europe where of course there is a huge culture of having and visiting museums and galleries, as a result, there are more opportunities there. And in places like South Asia for example, where this culture is in the process of emerging, I find to a certain extent much more exciting and also of course more challenging.
In terms of opportunities in my practice, I always tried to observe and chose exhibitions, invitations or organizations that suited my own practice, ethics, and the specific projects. This, in my experience has always worked out for me the best, even if it meant to showcase less.
17. We know that fine art or documentary photography is not always enough to make a living. Some do commercial work, others teach. Are there other photography related areas that you work with in order to supplement your living? Some that you would recommend aspiring photographers to consider?
Yes, this is an important one. I would always recommend young photographers and photo artists to not rely solely on income that generates from their practice. In the beginning, it’s tough to balance between generating an income and to develop one’s own practice. When I started out, in order to generate income, I initially worked in the creative industry and also as a lecturer, which helped me to be a bit more relaxed and have less pressure to create work that I wanted to create and not be driven solely by what the market demands. However, there is a fine line between these two worlds, and it is easier said than done; I enjoy mentoring and teaching but to achieve the right balance is always a challenge.
18. Digital technology has changed photography drastically over the last few years. Did you initially embrace the changes or resist them? Do you believe the changes have been good for the medium or not?
Historically, photography has always been a medium that has reinvented, re-emerged, and developed itself and carries this idea of ‘Zeitgeist.’ From the day of its invention, it has been a very democratic medium and, with digital technology, it became even more so and more approachable as well. In my opinion, the more we move into the digital, we need to build more of an academic discourse and practice at the same time. I personally like to engage with new developments but more in terms of comparing works. I am less interested in the latest cameras; I was taught that, no matter how great the camera is, it can never replace the human being behind it.
19. Do you think there is a universal language that photography uses? Do you think that South Asian photographers are finding that they are judged by western criteria and standards?
No, I don’t think so. This is very subjective and, like I mentioned earlier, it depends a lot on the photographer. We, as photographers, have certain technological limitations that are valid for us all and in my opinion that’s about it. With globalization and references that I made in my response to question 2, paradigms are also changing with academic discourse that happens in the global south, which is initiated by local knowledge and academia. These paradigms are currently shifting and the involvement of South Asian academic discourse is, in my opinion, crucial for sustainable future developments in regards to developments within the medium and in the context of local understandings and perceptions; also in the equality of dissemination of content and its understanding and reading.
20. How has it been living through this lockdown period for you, in terms of your practice and /or producing work?
I assume it is the toughest and the most challenging of times for so many in the creative industries and especially for the practice of self funded artists, photographers included. I do not mean this in terms of only finances; I mean this also in terms of exchange, residencies, projects, exhibitions, and travels. All these are extremely invaluable stepping-stones in everyone’s practice and of course to a certain extent, many digital possibilities have been discovered within the digital spectrum. However, for me these cannot replace the one-to-one meetings and exchanges, the ideating, etc. The financial aspect has also been devastating for so many and the entire network of curators, gallerists, suppliers, and of course the artists and photographers themselves has suffered and are in dire straits since everyone runs small enterprises and everyone needs to survive – pay bills, pay in some cases assistants and all this, due to the breakdown of the market, becomes an increasingly difficult endeavor.
21. With your years of experience, of the lessons you have learned, what is the one thing you wish someone had told you when you were starting out?
No actually not. The biggest mistake, I feel is not to learn from one’s own mistakes
22. How would an interested collector go about buying your work?
Please contact me directly for information on commissions or sales; depending on the request I will refer to the respective representing gallerist for further inquiries.
23. If you didn’t do photography, what other career might you have pursued?
I would perhaps be an architect or a writer.
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Copyright © Liz Fernando
20 November
