Growing up in a rural area in Hambantota, Luxshmanan Nadaraja learned to love the beauty of the natural world. Today, this love translates into photographs that capture the essence of Sri Lanka’s untamed wilderness – elusive moments, in the lives of animals in the heart of the jungle, amidst the mountains.
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| Luxshmanan
Nadaraja |
For him, it’s all about the experience of enjoying nature as it is. “It’s an appreciation that I’ve inherited from my parents, from an upbringing in natural surroundings,” he says. His father was a government doctor, who was often stationed in remote areas, and he and his five siblings were taught to observe and value their surroundings.
Although they had to move to Colombo later on, Luxshmanan kept returning to the wilds that he loved, often setting camp in the jungles of Hambantota, Peak Wilderness and the Yala, Bundala and Malala national parks, purely for the pleasure of being in these environments. Photography, he says, was just a byproduct of these experiences.
“As a youngster, I was the only one in the family who couldn’t even handle the little box camera at home,” he laughs. However, after he left school, he was offered a job at Studio Times, by its Chairman, Nihal Fernando, the first step to a career in photography that would bring him both joy and fame.
“Ultimately, for me, it’s only an excuse to go into the forest,” he reflects, saying that photography has enabled him to explore the heart of nature, and to be witness to many special moments in the wild. One of his favourite memories is a spectacular battle between a leopard and a bear, over a kill that the leopard had made, in Yala. “The bear won,” he recalls, “and I was able to capture its triumph on the camera.”
His first solo book, ‘The Nature of Sri Lanka’ is a striking collection of photographs taken over the past two decades that is a testimony to the beauty of our country. Spanning 320 pages, the book includes colour as well as black and white photographs from pristine spots around Sri Lanka, except, he says with regret, the North and East.
Printed in Singapore, the book also features comments from eminent writers and conservationists including Dr T.S.U. De Zilva, Shirley Perera, Dr. Sriyanie Miththapala, Dr. Arjuna Parakrama, Dr. Shyamala Ratnayake, Martin Wijesinghe, Arjuna Nadaraja, Richard Simon and Arittha Wikramanayake. Priced at Rs 9,500, it will be available at both his studio, Wildlight (Pvt) Ltd., as well as at the Barefoot Bookshop, Colombo.
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