Information is pretty thin stuff, unless mixed with experience said the American author Clarence Day and so it was with the Bihalpola Raja Maha Vihare  located off the Kurunegala-Narammala-Madampe Rd, Sri Lanka. We had been warned that the climb to the top was tedious but I was glad that I huffed and puffed and dragged my aching, creaking joints to the higher ...

“We’re all ghosts. We all carry, inside us, people who came before us.” ― Liam Callanan, The Cloud Atlas “He was my most obedient good son, but he did the most disobedient thing,” my grandmother Pinto Hamy  had lamented, talking of my uncle Vinnie. Born on a day like today 102 years ago on 20 Nov. 1912, Vinnie or Vincent as he ...

Boy and his Dog at the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memoria, Washington DC, 18 May 2008. Photo copyright Chulie de Silva. The immortalising of US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt ‘s Scottie Fala in a statue at FDR’s musuem caught my eye instantly. As I was focusing, a young boy moved to sit next to Fala with his own Scottie.  A quick ...

Boy and his Dog at the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memoria, Washington DC, 18 May 2008. Photo copyright Chulie de Silva. The immortalising of US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt ‘s Scottie Fala in a statue at FDR’s musuem caught my eye instantly. As I was focusing, a young boy moved to sit next to Fala with his own Scottie.  A quick ...

Sri Lankan grandmother  by Shahidul Alam One burnt saucepan, 20 pages of editing, half a dozen lumosity exercises later am bored. This is life after retirement. I should probably jump on the treadmill but it is easier to turn to FB and there she was — a portrait of a Sri Lankan grandmother  by the Bangladeshi photographer Shahidul Alam.  The years ...

Sri Lankan grandmother  by Shahidul Alam One burnt saucepan, 20 pages of editing, half a dozen lumosity exercises later am bored. This is life after retirement. I should probably jump on the treadmill but it is easier to turn to FB and there she was — a portrait of a Sri Lankan grandmother  by the Bangladeshi photographer Shahidul Alam.  The years ...

Part of the Berlin Wall from the Berlin Wall Gallery. 11 May 2008. Photo copyright Chulie de Silva. 25 years after the fall of the Berlin wall and over six years since I glimpsed a piece of this history, it was time to dig up my photos. It was on a cold blustery morning in May 2008, that I saw ...

Part of the Berlin Wall from the Berlin Wall Gallery. 11 May 2008. Photo copyright Chulie de Silva. 25 years after the fall of the Berlin wall and over six years since I glimpsed a piece of this history, it was time to dig up my photos. It was on a cold blustery morning in May 2008, that I saw ...

Chulie de Silva:Iconic 20th-Century Photographs by Yousuf Karsh on Display in the National Portrait Gallery “Yousuf Karsh: American Portraits” opens May 2 In celebration of a major gift to its collection of more than 100 portraits created by master photographer Yousuf Karsh (1908–2002), the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery is installing a special exhibition on the first floor of the museum, ...

Chulie de Silva:The power of black & white Originally posted on Art Blart: Exhibition dates: 2nd May – 2nd November 2014 Curator: National Portrait Gallery Senior Curator of Photographs Ann Shumard Decisive exposure Whether there was, or he understood there to be, a “decisive” moment when Eugène Atget took a photograph is unknown… but I think that what he was trying to achieve ...

The birds, squirrels and the monkeys that greet me every morning have deserted me and I sit a tad forlornly watching the rain pelting down.  Hmm, the grass will need cutting soon, but the more urgent need is company with the morning cuppa.The one I select is past its prime. A bit battered and worn out the outer skin crumbles ...

The birds, squirrels and the monkeys that greet me every morning have deserted me and I sit a tad forlornly watching the rain pelting down.  Hmm, the grass will need cutting soon, but the more urgent need is company with the morning cuppa.The one I select is past its prime. A bit battered and worn out the outer skin crumbles ...

Chulie de Silva:A side of Colombo I didn’t know — fascinating a must read! Originally posted on A Life of Saturdays: A man (Gihan, he tells me his name later) catches sight of me surveying a stencil of a smiling child sandwiched between a photocopy shop and a dilapidated building on Dawson Street, and signals from across the road: “There’s ...

Chulie de Silva:A side of Colombo I didn’t know — fascinating a must read! Originally posted on A Life of Saturdays: A man (Gihan, he tells me his name later) catches sight of me surveying a stencil of a smiling child sandwiched between a photocopy shop and a dilapidated building on Dawson Street, and signals from across the road: “There’s ...

Today, after 24 years, trains have started running to Jaffna, linking Colombo and the northern city. There are plenty of jubilant photos of President Rajapaksa aboard the brand new shiny “Yal Devi” train. It was time for me to dig my archives for photos I took on1 Sep. 2009. Take a minute to pause and look at the station then, ...

Today, after 24 years, trains have started running to Jaffna, linking Colombo and the northern city. There are plenty of jubilant photos of President Rajapaksa aboard the brand new shiny “Yal Devi” train. It was time for me to dig my archives for photos I took on1 Sep. 2009. Take a minute to pause and look at the station then, ...

“You take so many photos, you get us to stand this way and that way, but we never gets to see them,” yelled my sister, all the way from Brisbane, the other day. The line crackled, and I mumbled about lost computers and hard disks crashing, which sounded lame even to my own ears. Most of the time, we ignore ...

“You take so many photos, you get us to stand this way and that way, but we never gets to see them,” yelled my sister, all the way from Brisbane, the other day. The line crackled, and I mumbled about lost computers and hard disks crashing, which sounded lame even to my own ears. Most of the time, we ignore ...

Originally posted on 9to5Mac: It’s happening: Apple has just announced a keynote address for Thursday, October 16th to take place at the Town Hall auditorium on its Infinite Loop Campus in Cupertino, California. Invitations to select members of the media and special guests indicate that the event will, as always, begin at 10 AM Pacific time/1 PM Eastern Time. News ...

Originally posted on 9to5Mac: It’s happening: Apple has just announced a keynote address for Thursday, October 16th to take place at the Town Hall auditorium on its Infinite Loop Campus in Cupertino, California. Invitations to select members of the media and special guests indicate that the event will, as always, begin at 10 AM Pacific time/1 PM Eastern Time. News ...