Stories of people, place, and change.
Documentary photography by Nayanahari Abeynayake, exploring everyday life, identity, inequality, memory, and the communities shaped by Sri Lanka’s southern coast.
Exhibitions
Recent and upcoming presentations of Nayanahari Abeynayake’s work.
A group exhibition marking the second anniversary of Sri Lanka’s 2022 people’s protest movement through contemporary art.
A contemporary Sri Lankan art exhibition reflecting on the Aragalaya/Porattam and the role of visual art in sustaining political memory.
As a spontaneous reaction to the intensifying socio-political current realities in Sri Lanka the Goethe-Institut Chennai and Sri Lanka in collaboration with the Chennai Photo Biennale have selected four emerging photographers with an ongoing documentary practice. We are supporting them by awarding the photographers with small grants to continue their ongoing practice, documenting the multifold economic hardships, the people’s protest movement and other topics of current relevance in their respective surroundings.
The selection of photographers was made, taking into account the desire to support photographers with potential and an interesting practice, from a variety of locations across the country and keeping to a gender balance.
A Chennai Photo Biennale and Goethe-Institut exhibition sharing lens-based stories from Sri Lanka’s economic and political crisis.
A film screening and panel discussion on Sri Lanka’s 2022 crisis, created with four Sri Lankan lens-based artists.
A solo photographic exhibition reflecting on post-war Sri Lanka, social equality, and the human cost of discrimination.
A solo photographic exhibition reflecting on post-war Sri Lanka, social equality, and the human cost of discrimination.
A solo photographic exhibition reflecting on post-war Sri Lanka, social equality, and the human cost of discrimination.
A solo photographic exhibition reflecting on post-war Sri Lanka, social equality, and the human cost of discrimination.
A solo photographic exhibition reflecting on post-war Sri Lanka, social equality, and the human cost of discrimination.
A solo photographic exhibition reflecting on post-war Sri Lanka, social equality, and the human cost of discrimination.
A solo photographic exhibition reflecting on post-war Sri Lanka, social equality, and the human cost of discrimination.
Presented as part of the “Wedikawen Mahapolowata” art festival, the exhibition used quiet, striking images to speak about humanity and social equality.
A solo photographic exhibition reflecting on post-war Sri Lanka, social equality, and the human cost of discrimination.
A joint exhibition with Dominic Sansoni, bringing together photographic work rooted in Galle and its spaces.
Stories - Photographs from Sri Lanka, where private lives meet public history.
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Galle, My Home
A personal series from Sri Lanka’s southern coast — children, workers, weather, roads, and the small encounters that make a place familiar.
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These Are Not Dewdrops of Jaffna
A quiet study of post-war life in northern Sri Lanka, where domestic routines continue among the visible and invisible remains of conflict.
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Aragalaya
Sri Lanka’s 2022 protest movement seen as a public reckoning — a country gathering in anger, exhaustion, memory, and hope.
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Where the Fire Entered
A quiet record of the aftermath of anti-Muslim violence in Sri Lanka — damaged mosques, burnt rooms, and the fragile work of return.
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The Missing Remain
A portrait of enforced disappearance in Sri Lanka, told through a mother, a photograph, and the long life of unanswered absence.