Naveena Camera

This visual essay explores the daily life and rhythms of a photography studio in Jaffna in northern Sri Lanka. Here, I reflect on the enduring entanglements of war and everyday image-making practices in the postwar period. The accompanying visuals cast the studio space as one of stillness and movem...

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Main Author: Vindhya Buthpitiya
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Heidelberg Asian Studies Publishing 2022-10-01
Series:Dastavezi
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hasp.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/journals/dasta/article/view/19131
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author Vindhya Buthpitiya
author_facet Vindhya Buthpitiya
author_sort Vindhya Buthpitiya
collection DOAJ
description This visual essay explores the daily life and rhythms of a photography studio in Jaffna in northern Sri Lanka. Here, I reflect on the enduring entanglements of war and everyday image-making practices in the postwar period. The accompanying visuals cast the studio space as one of stillness and movement, where photography exists as an act of communal production and aspiration in a setting marked by political unrest and inequity. Even as advancements in technology and digital photography have further allowed the studio to be integrated into the surveillance, security, and documentation regimes of the state and state-like actors, the work of studio photographers positions them as the determined arbiters of their clients’ anticipated futures. The day-to-day routines of studios reflected the lingering effects of war on aspirations for citizenship. When taken together with the possibilities for mobility that are afforded by the Tamil community’s displacement and dispersal, as caused by conflict, the role of photography in realizing these hopes becomes apparent.
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spelling doaj.art-27e1f4ae199a461ab2e95e013e416b502022-12-22T02:47:40ZengHeidelberg Asian Studies PublishingDastavezi2628-91132022-10-014110.11588/dasta.2022.1.19131Naveena CameraVindhya Buthpitiya This visual essay explores the daily life and rhythms of a photography studio in Jaffna in northern Sri Lanka. Here, I reflect on the enduring entanglements of war and everyday image-making practices in the postwar period. The accompanying visuals cast the studio space as one of stillness and movement, where photography exists as an act of communal production and aspiration in a setting marked by political unrest and inequity. Even as advancements in technology and digital photography have further allowed the studio to be integrated into the surveillance, security, and documentation regimes of the state and state-like actors, the work of studio photographers positions them as the determined arbiters of their clients’ anticipated futures. The day-to-day routines of studios reflected the lingering effects of war on aspirations for citizenship. When taken together with the possibilities for mobility that are afforded by the Tamil community’s displacement and dispersal, as caused by conflict, the role of photography in realizing these hopes becomes apparent. https://hasp.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/journals/dasta/article/view/19131JaffnaSri Lankamigrationstudioswarphotography
spellingShingle Vindhya Buthpitiya
Naveena Camera
Dastavezi
Jaffna
Sri Lanka
migration
studios
war
photography
title Naveena Camera
title_full Naveena Camera
title_fullStr Naveena Camera
title_full_unstemmed Naveena Camera
title_short Naveena Camera
title_sort naveena camera
topic Jaffna
Sri Lanka
migration
studios
war
photography
url https://hasp.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/journals/dasta/article/view/19131
work_keys_str_mv AT vindhyabuthpitiya naveenacamera