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Lakruwan Rajapaksha
My name is Lakruwan Rajapaksha, and I am a photographer based in Surrey, England. I was born and raised in Sri Lanka. In 2007, I moved to the United Kingdom. I consider taking a documentary approach to my photography and prefer to work with natural light. I frequently create sophisticated illumination setups for films, and performance space.I studied mass communication and television production at the University of Colombo in Sri Lanka. I am currently pursuing a BA in Photography at London Metropolitan University
As a Sri Lankan immigrant to the United Kingdom, I have had a broad range of political, social, and cultural experiences. Since 2007, I've only visited Sri Lanka twice. As a result, my memory of certain locations in Sri Lanka, particularly my village, is fading. In this work, I'm striving to recollect this memory and feeling of being there.
As I'm still finding it difficult to adapt to the English way of living and the atmosphere of this place, this endeavour can sometimes result in agonising pain. I regularly wake up very early in the morning for an extra paper round job I’ve taken, which allows me to walk through the village where I live at that special time when the night becomes a dawn. In this contemplative silence and solitude, looking at the quintessential English countryside landscape, I’m often transported, or actively search to evoke memories of my disappearing Sri Lanka; the photographs become dream paintings, simultaneously real and imagined. Although it can be a bitter-sweet process, it calms me down for a moment.
While out photographing British landscapes, I devote a significant amount of time attempting to see things in a less literal way. This is the time when I consider all the different factors and components. I am persuaded that this is an important part of my image-capture process. The tools and techniques used in each project or series vary, but the image's perspective, cinematic, and passion remain consistent. My work is distinguished by a classic and dreamy performance in which the imperfections of the subject, camera, or technique are frequently highlighted as an indispensable part of the image.
