Slow down. Wait. Be patient. I force this mantra to run through my head as I shoot, trying to waylay the urge to rush off to the next photographic opportunity, to capture a decisive moment. Wait. Do not worry about over-staying your welcome. Be patient. The images that appear in these pages emerged when I was able to make myself stand still and allow the right moment to unfold.
While I traveled halfway around the world to explore Sri Lanka, my favourite images come from the quiet street steps away from our home there. “3rd Lane,” for example, is the result of many hours spent observing and quietly recording the life of a quiet lane near our house in Attidiya, where I had become something of a daily fixture, shooting, watching, waiting.
From Marion Bridge:
“LOUISE addresses the audience: See for me it’s like everybody’s strange, it’s just that some people show it more than other people do. I suppose some people would say it’s strange for me to be standing here talking to you. And I suppose some people’d say it’s strange for you to be sitting there listening.”
For me this is the essence of theatre, when Louise finishes her long monologue to the audience and then asks them to consider the “strangeness” of a group of strangers gathered watching a person pretending spontaneity on a raised platform. The theatre asks us to question our place in the room, in our own lives and in the world.