Maduha works as a Tamil teacher  (which is, near Sinhala the official language in Sri Lanka) in the OWF School and participates in my photography class during her free time. She had the idea to photograph baggers, which she encounters often in her environment. Her project aims to make them and their problems visible to the society, and to create awareness of the situation of this marginal-(iced) people. It’s not an easy idea to realize, and I accompanied her today to provide support and encouragement (which I also use to do with the other project groups at their first shooting day). I was rather surprised to see her whole family waiting for me at the bus station! After taking a coffee at her grandparent’s house, Maduha, her father and I went trough Aluthgama, looking for beggars. I am sure that due to Maduha’s very cautious and sensible approach this project will work. And I am really amazed to see how her entire family backs her plan.

Here the first shoots she took today:

Later in the week we were busy with organizing locations, scheduling shooting days, and finally starting the first shootings! I assigned the students to answer a few questions about their project such as why they selected the topic, what they want to point up, what story they want to tell. This writing should help them to put their thoughts together and have a clear idea of what the project should be about. I think, that the best topics are the ones the students truly care about. It is great to see, that they start looking at things in a different way and explore every day life creatively!

Brainstorming, discussing, rejecting, finding arguments, researching… that’s what our week was all about!  We started our projects, which will be presented in a final exhibition on December, 15th. After writing down all ideas spontaneously, the students had to pick a theme that their photographs will be centered on. Not at all easy, of course, but everybody did it and the result is considerable. The students cover an amazingly diverse range of topics, such as reports about local industries, family relationships and marginal people.

Today we combined morning and afternoon class and went for a trip to the very beautiful city of Galle. We took the bus, which in Sri Lanka is always a challenge. Busses are usually overcrowded, and the drivers have their own rules: they go fast, overtake everywhere, preferably busses as if they will earn bonus for every bus they overtake. My students are used to Sri Lankan public transport and seem relaxed while I feel relieved when we finally reach Galle bus station. But Galle fort is worth the trip! The four hundred year old citadel has a tempestuous history and is considered one of the world’s greatest examples of 17th century colonial fortification. Today’s population is very colourful: multi ethnic and multi religious. On the grass – clad walls we have a wonderful view to the see and the city, and the perfect panorama for our pictures.

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Ahungalla is the place where the main campus of the OWF school is located. It’s a small village of about 4000 inhabitants situated on the coast 50 miles south of colombo. Everyday on my way to school and back I encounter so many different people on the streets: kids, playing volleyball, woman on their way shopping equipped with huge umbrellas ( which serve to protect against sun and rain ), people in front and around their houses talking or simply reading the newspaper,  tuck tuck drivers always offering their services. Most people here live in modest circumstances, big families often share small houses. The main part of life takes place outside, in the streets. In this week our photography class was focused on the streets of Ahungalla.

The students had to select a topic of their choice, such as portraits, street life, shops or working people and concentrate on it. In order to understand the importance of a good and focused selection as well, they had to choose up to seven pictures ( which was not that easy considering the large number of pictures taken) and present them to the other students. Everybody had to explain and discuss the taken photographs under several aspects, concerning technical, content and compositional aspects.

Ishara selected the following pictures:

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Everyday when i arrive at school, before the lession starts,  i see lots of  children from preschool in blue uniforms playing in the school garden. They are amazing, always smiling and waving at me. And they are fantastic models for my students. The last lession was all about depth of field and the several factors by which it is determined. With subjects such as portraits a small depth of field is often used to blur the background, which has the advantage to reduce distractions from the main subject of the image. Sachini, Amodi, Sameera and Sasindu captured this very expressive faces in their images, applying their new knowledge in a clever way.

One thing that makes Sri Lanka that colorful is certainly the sari, a traditional, common dress, that Sri Lankan

woman wear in many styles. Every sari has a different color and design, there are lots of materials and it is dropped

over the body in various manners. In the OWF school all female teachers wear a sari and it makes them look great.

So i decided to buy one as well. It was not easy to choose one due to the broad selection of colors and materials.

The sari is usually worn over a petticoat and with a blouse with short sleeves. The participants of the woman’s cooperation

placed in the owf school, where woman are able to receive training in tailoring, sewed a pretty blouse and petticoat for me.

It was kind of a challenge to dress my new garment, frankly two woman helped and instructed me how to drape it.

Mid week we were lucky and had a beautiful day of sunshine for taking photographs on the beach.

After a little walk along the sea, we discovered a small harbour with pretty coloured wooden fishing boats.

Here a few snapshots taken by Maduha, Lalani and Mayura:

Week two started with rain and thunderstorms due to the rainy period.
But we don’t give up according to the motto: there is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing.

Here some rain pictures and the famous lightening picture taken by (the very proud) Sasindu:

On Friday four new students joined the photography morning class:

While we started again with technical basics, the other group,

who is already familiar with the main camera settings,realized their

first assignment. They tried to capture characteristics of their country.

Here the best of pictures taken by Isara, Maduha, Sampath and Tharindu:

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In this week the students had their first experiences with the SLR- Pentax cameras provided by the paint for life

foundation. Of all students taking the class only one girl has already shot with an SLR camera, few of the others

captured photographs with their mobile phone, but in large part the students never photographed at all.

We started with the fundamental technical skills: the students should learn everything they need to take control

of the digital SLR camera. This contains a lot of information about exposure and how to use the different camera

settings in order to take a correct exposed and sharp photo. Beside all the technical information we did a lot of

exercising around the school garden. It is amazing to see how everybody is trying hard, and also having

fun with the camera: once they hold the camera in their hand it’s difficult to stop them!!! I encourage the students

every day to ask questions if they don’t understand, but quite often they don’t due to their culturally based politeness

and the language barrier. The English skills vary a lot: the students from the morning class have a relatively good

knowledge, while in the afternoon class most of the students don’t speak English at all.

Tuesday, my very first day of class in the owf – school!!! For the next two months i’ll teach two classes in photography:

one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Today i went to school by bicycle, it is amazing how friendly people in Ahungalla are:

everybody smiling to me. My students are interested, smart and incredibly polite!

These are the students from the morning class:

and the afternoon class:

It is time to say farewell… This is the end of my residency in Ahungalla, Sri Lanka and I leave back to Vienna on February 2. My wishes go out to Kathrin Messner, Prabath Wijesekara De Zoysa, the whole faculty at owf and my dear students… Goodbye!

This most certainly is the picture of the day with the participants of the photo workshop at owf. It has been such a special time, I like to say ‘bohoma stuti’ to all of them for taking care of this project and for producing such amazing work. I’ll miss my students and take unforgettable memories back home.

The project period was completed on January 25 and I ordered about 100 prints in 8 x 12 inch from ‘Edwins’, a local photo store in Ambalan- goda. In accordance with Kathrin Messner, the founder of the owf and the school principal Prabath Wijesekara De Zoysa, my students presented their best photos at the school compound on January 28. I am very proud of all participants. They did an excellent job and the exhibition was well received by the public. If you like to review a larger selection of photo work please click here.

Nuwan, Milinda and Gayathri dedicated time and focus to the world of dance and martial arts. In spite of some difficulties in the beginning of the project period they managed to locate some studios where traditional Sri Lankan dance is thought as well as a training spot for Karate. Not an easy job to accomplish!

Hikkaduwa and Sinigama as well as Madu river are perfect spots for nature photography. Athri, Prasadi, Salo, Shashini and Tharangi were interested in the way, sunlight and the time of the day affects nature and the way we perceive – and appreciate – it. They started early, before dawn and completed their work late when the sun disappeared behind the horizone…

Two of my students, Amila and Kushantha went to Angolangoda, half an hour drive from Ahungalla, an area famous for wood carving and traditional masks. They explored the workshop & sales department and captured the process of work. This job was difficult to handle because  of little available light and no additional light sources at hand.

Narmika, Gauri and Dharanie focused on animals that are taken out of their natural habitat. They visited one of several turtle farms in Kosgoda, traveled up to Madu river and visited the Delawara Zoo up north towards Colombo. This is just a small selection of their work!

Sri lanka is impossible to imagine without its countless temples and shrines. Luckly, Isuru and Dasun decided to document some of the Buddhist paintings inside Balapitiya temple, one of the oldest sacred places on the island. Some layers of colors are more than 300 years old and still visible inspite of little maintanance and restauration efforts.

The first group with Praveen, Indika, Davinda and Isuru traveled to Lunuganga and Brief garden, an hour drive south of the owf school. These magnificent gardens were designed by Geoffrey and Brief Bawa from the early 50ies on. Both brothers in the meantime passed away but the gardens are well looked after and kept as a top end resort off the beaten track. A perfect place to show the beauty of nature in balance with human interaction…

I just thought it is high time for another picture of the day… This time a close-up of a white orchid, beautifully captured by Athri during one of her assignments.

The project period just started with a number of meetings to develop a visual concept for the upcoming shoots as well as ensure logistics and permissions if required. There are six projects in total, the first group will check out the camera gear this coming Monday and drive to the famous Lunuganga garden of Geoffrey Bawa. I put up a board to keep the students up to  date with emerging deadlines and changes of schedule.

Most of my students are assembled on these photos and I hope the images show a bit of the creativity and fun that is part of our collaboration. About half the students are so called “school leavers” and just finished their education at the owf. However, we continue working together and start a small project series in January 2010. I received about eight project applications, ranging from action photography to wedding, nature (macro) to documentary. The second image shows the school principal Prabath Wijesekara De Zoysa (center), who teaches IT at the owf.

Talking about costumes of all kinds… this is my picture of the day!

The students at the one world foundation have their exams taken at around mid December and once all the tests are (hopefully) accomplished, the school celebrates for a full day. There is a stage set up with red curtains, stunning costumes, light, music and dance. Children are running around all over the place and the space is filled with an unforgettable atmosphere of joy and excitement. The Pentax cameras were well used and up to eight photographers captured the whole show, peeked backstage and even dared to approach some kind of a VIP section with local celebrities who came to attend the ceremony. The first image shows Kathrin Messner, the founder of the owf. A larger selection will soon be online on Facebook.

One of the first assignments of my students were group photos of the different classes of the one world foundation. I gave them full freedom and limited my involvement to organizational assistance. Group photos are tough and apart from various lighting conditions it certainly is a challenge to arrange some twenty kids or teenagers on one spot. I enjoyed watching my students on the job and using the camera as a tool for composition and creativity.

Most students have a great talent with close-up shots and I am amazed to look through the selection of flowers and animals they capture on a day to day basis. Talking about close-up’s, this is my photo of the day!

The school is just a ten minutes walk from the Indian ocean and there is sand for miles without end. We took two hours off and had a small photo session close to the water. More images coming soon…

A closely located buddhist and hindi temple area was the destination of today’s excursion and I attached a small selection of work the students produced. The task was to take all photos with manual settings and keep automatic functions on the camera switched off. In spite of difficult lighting situations the students did a really good job and I am looking forward to the projects ahead!

I introduced ten digital Pentax SLR K200d cameras (as a set with a standard 18 – 55mm zoom lens) to the students. These cameras are our tools for the months and hopefully years ahead. Both classes began experimenting and trying out the new gear and there is a lot of curiosity around. However, knowledge about technical equipment appears to be very different. Some students barely ever touched a camera of some kind, others are fairly familiar with technical gadgets because of friends or family. So teaching basic theory appears tricky, also due to language barriers and hesitation of most students to raise questions or concerns. However, this is just the first week and much more ahead. Stay tuned!

Today was my first day at the school compound of the one world fundation. I will be teaching every day two classes with in total about 40 students. The first encounter was exciting and there is a lot of respect on either sides. So far, I am the only foreign teacher apart from Markus and Joachim, two English teachers from Germany. Some kind of new world opened up when I entered the school and it will take some time to get accustomed to such a different reality.

What concerns my teaching, I intend to design the class as a workshop with students involved in exchange and teamwork. In spite of all the technical aspects of photography, our work should also be fun and a time full of surprises! The snap-shot attached was taken in the library where we had our first get-together.

Leaving Vienna on November 22 with a sense of winter time approaching, I arrived in Colombo 15 hours later with 35 degrees C and a perfect blue sky. I was overwhelmed not only by climate and temperature, though. People appeared soft and generous, all I sensed seemed to follow a different rhythm and pace. I was picked up and brought to Bogenvillya, a building that belongs to the school and will be home sweet home for the time of my stay.

My main task is to teach photography at the school of the owf one world foundation, a free education unit, and carry out a documentary about the school as such. My stay is scheduled until the end of January 2010. Paint for Life generously sponsored the purchase of digital photo equipment and accessories that I managed to take with me to Sri Lanka.

I am leaving in a couple of days to Ahungalla, Sri Lanka for an artist in residency in close collaboration with owf one world foundation and Paint for Life. This blog will give you some insight into my work and the project as such!