134Monks on TV, Colombo (2007)

Stephen Champion (b. 1959)

Archival digital print from original ‘C’ type photograph

All works collection the artist

First exhibited: ‘Lanka 1986–1992’ first published by Garnet, United Kingdom, 1993

‘Sri Lanka: War Stories’ first published by Stephen Champion, 2008

Stephen Champion’s first book of photographs ‘Lanka 1986–1992’ was published in 1993. He self-published his second book ‘Sri Lanka: War Stories’ in 2008. The colour and black and white photographs that Champion assembled are one of the first photographic accounts of the civil conflict in book form. Closely involved in the layout of each book, Champion used the spreads to juxtapose photographs, often to evoke disturbing or on occasion, humorous pairings. Travelling around the country by motorbike for weeks on end, over many years, he captured an island paradise in a state of transition and crisis. The resulting photographs made plain the complexity of Sri Lanka’s war, illustrating how far language, class and corruption contributed to the ethnic and religious nationalisms on all sides of the conflict. The fragile beauty of new life, of a baby in a mother’s sling and the masked face of a Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) militant are each portrayed with detached empathy. As stark and total as his images are, Champion’s work testifies to the enduring ability of the camera, to record its subjects intimately. His photographs are an alluring reminder of how much history speaks in images and how in turn images speak to history.

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