Books

Nihal Fernando SinhaRaja Tammita Delgoda

Anu Weerasuriya Luxshmanan Nadaraja Christopher Silva  

Devaka Seneviratne Roshan Perret

Eloquence in Stone

HARD COVER. 12x12x1.5 INCHES APPROX. 475 PGS. 465 BLACK & WHITE & COLOUR PHOTOGRAPHS. EXTENSIVELY RESEARCHED, ENLIGHTENING & INSPIRING TEXT. GLOSSARY, BIBLIOGRAPHY & MAPS.

Let me say immediately that I have been overwhelmed by this book. It is no ordinary publication. It is a treasury, a devout offering, a declaration of unconditional love; and also, alas, a confession of fear. The object of this yearning is in danger of ruin even as we gaze upon it and as we wonder at its beauty. This book is, indeed, a sacred repository of a deeply-felt response to a dying civilisation. This is about Sri Lanka.  

       - Neville Weeraratne, Asia Digest, Feb 2009

Reviewed as one of the most comprehensive books about Sri Lanka and as being on par with the best international publications, Eloquence in Stone narrates the story of this island nation. It begins with the cliffs and caves where ancient man lived as far back as 150,000 years ago in Sri Lanka and then moves onto the stone tools they produced 35,000 BP, and the script of the ancients that dates back to 500 BC. One of the first man-made tanks in the world was built in the citadel of Anuradhapura. This tank was the starting point of a sophisticated irrigation system which harnessed monsoon rains and channeled the waters for long distances from one tank to giving rise to a rich agricultural civilization - a society that built ships and traded in elephants and spices and one which adopted the rituals of Buddhism and Hinduism, built magnificent statues and temples embellished with sculpture and murals.  It is a culture and a way of life that continues in much the same manner to this day. The descendants of this ancient people cultivate the same fields, dance to the same drums and worship at the same temples. The world of the 20th century is yet to enmesh them fully and this book is a peon to this heritage.

Produced by a team of Sri Lanka’s foremost photographer/travellers, the book is of interest to all Sri Lankans as well as historians, archaeologists, Asian Studies specialists, anthropologists and sociologists. It is also a book that lovers of beauty – beautiful writing and beautiful photographs, will treasure.

The book ends with the words of Nihal Fernando, the man who inspired the book -  “This is the dream I have had for the last fifteen years. I want to tell the story of this country and its people. I want to make people think about our past and what we are doing to it before it is too late.”

Year of Publication – 2008. ISBN 955-9236-06-01

For further info/reviews of Studio Times publications: www.studiotimespublications.blogspot.com

18 cm x 19cm (portrait), 230 pages, 200 photographs

duo tone printing in Korea

2 Editions

Standard Soft Cover Edition 

Deluxe Limited (1000 Numbered Copies) Hard Cover Edition

ISBN 955-9236-05-9 

Renowned for the production of excellent publications of photographic books of Sri Lanka, Studio Times has just produced its most recent book, With the dawn.  It is an epic poem on life in the jungles, its drama, its pathos, its beauty, written by Herbert Keuneman and illustrated with photographs by Nihal Fernando.

With the dawn is a delightful book which is unique in this country.  No book of its genre has ever been published.  All books produced upto date have been volumes of photographs or of an academic/ informative/travelogue nature.  With the dawn, however, is sheer beauty  - beauty of words, beauty of moods, beauty of photographs.  Words and images come together to evoke an almost magical story.  Yet, it is very real.  Behind the beauty is a true picture.  A moving picture story in still photographs of life as it is in the wilderness.

The book is based on an Exhibition of Photographs produced by Studio Times in 1973.  It delighted adults and children alike and was received with much acclaim.  The views of the people who came for the exhibition are recorded in the Comments Book and a few excerpts read as follows:

“The pictures speak!  -  there is nothing more to say  -  but I will like to add that my children aged 6 ,8, 10 and 12 followed this beautifully written narrative and the pictures in their correct sequence, voluntarily, and seemed to share the delight, the pathos, the exhilaration they found there, with absorbed interest.  Genuine response like that is probably the only genuine tribute to art.” - Lilamani Dias, and Aruni, Ranmali, Sidath & Shari

“What is most exciting about Nihal’s work is his ability to command instant appeal.  In this Exhibition the splendid commentary helps.

 As someone remarked “the Exhibition just flows”.  -  Chandi Chanmugam

“Visual poetry!  It is like a film unrolled before one’s eyes.”  -  Daffy & Giom Kurukulasuriya

Black and white photography is a dying, yet a much revered art.  In this age of colour and highly manipulated digital photography, the production of a work of art with the most basic of elements, is indeed a skill in itself.  The noteworthy volumes of black and white photographs published in Sri Lanka are by Lionel Wendt (1950) and Reg Van Culenburg (1960).  With the dawn will make Sri lanka internationally known as a country which keeps alive a tradition valued by those who appreciate true art and photography.  In the light of modern trends this art is respected even more today.

Depicting the story of jungles, With the dawn invokes an appreciation of Sri Lanka’s natural landscape and wildlife heritage, so vital in the present context of large-scale decimation of the forests, the water cycle and natural resources.

“With the Dawn is a sacred text in which Nihal pays homage to all manner of creatures, some great and others small. His eye has ever been open to all the wonders of our world.” 

-        Neville Weeraratne, Sunday Island

“And now I am treated to a bird’s eye view of the other denizens of the jungle awakening and starting off on their quest for food and water.  Elephants, buffaloes, leopards and bears, sambhur and deer, mongoose and jackal and proud, majestic eagles, all have one fixed purpose  -  food and water.  The eagle swiftly swoops down to take off with a struggling fish, while the leopard, the crocodile, the jackal tear their quarries apart.  But this is not an ugly fact in the beautiful poem:  this is merely the unerring pattern of Nature.  As Herbert Keuneman puts it “the leopard … kills without malice.” And so we meander quietly through the jungle feeling so much a part of it and yet so much an outsider longing to be one with the jungle.”

-        Irangani Serasinghe, Sunday Times

“A beautiful book,” With the dawn in fact portrays everything Nihal Fernando fought for as a nature lover, patriot and environmental activist. The pictures are skillfully compiled in a sequence that tells the story of Sri Lanka’s precious wild life, with all its drama and pathos.  It illustrates how, while “the forest is a place of beauty, quietude and uneasy peace, there runs beneath its life a constant counterpoint of conflict and violence.”  A day in the jungle in the company of these two intrepid authors takes the reader close up to the battles for survival within it, the magnificence of nature, the sadness of death and man-made tragedy.”

       - Lasanda Kurukulasiriya, Sunday Observer