March 31 Protests and Aftermath: Updates
The Protest Events of March 31 leading into the early hours of April 1, 2022 On March 31, a silent citizens protest that began at Jubilee Junction in Nugegoda burgeoned into a massive show…
Photos
The Television President: Visuals and Symbols of Two Years of Gotabaya Rajapaksa
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa marked the completion of his second year in office much like how he started his term in November 2019, playing one of his greatest hits for the Sinhala Buddhist…
Eating Garbage, Elephants Die a Painful Death
This is what you see when I photographed elephants looking for food in a huge garbage mountain in Oluvil in the Ampara district. The easiest way to remove garbage in Sri Lanka…
Thé Kahata Exhibitions: Discovering the Creative Expression of Plantation Youth
Despite their contribution to the lucrative tea industry of Sri Lanka, the voices of plantation workers often go unheard and their potential unrecognised. is a series of photographic exhibitions organised by the…
Documenting the Environmental Degradation of Sri Lanka
A road is cut through the Sinharaja World Heritage Site forest with the approval of the president, illegal trawling in Puttalam is destroying fish stocks, elephants die painful deaths eating garbage dumped…
Senthooran: Black July Through the Eyes of a Survivor
It has been 37 years since the anti-Tamil pogrom of July 1983, a riot that set the country ablaze and sparked a 30-year long and bloody war. But even after nearly four…
Traces of War on Their Bodies
These are the stories of people whose daily struggles come from witnessing and being trapped in the middle of a war that lasted three decades, who think that it would have been…
Memorialisation on May 18th: From Politicisation to Peoplisation
At the last stages of the war thousands of civilians who lived in the Vanni Region of Northern Sri-Lanka were killed, injured and disappeared. Surrenders of war and persons among detainees were…
White Flags
A series of coordinated bomb explosions killed hundreds in Sri Lanka as they congregated for Easter Sunday mass, on April 21, 2019. Among the six main blast sites were three churches; St.…
Jana Balaya Colombo – Lessons Learned
On September 5, Colombo was nearly empty even during the after-school rush hour. The reason was the Joint Opposition’s Jana Balaya rally, the location of which remained under wraps until the last…
Jana Bala Sena Rally (Photos)
On August 2, the Joint Opposition held the “Jana Bala Sena” rally, beginning at Lipton Circus and ending at the Vihara Maha Devi Park amphitheatre. The protest at Lipton Circus was broadcast…
The Year in Photos
As 2017 draws to a close, Groundviews shares a selection of photos taken over the course of the year, covering a variety of issues, from displacement and militarisation in the North to…
#justaphotolka : Highlighting and Pushing Back Against Ongoing Surveillance in Vavuniya
On November 24, two youth were questioned in Vavuniya around posts they had made on Facebook. One of the photos was of the Divisional Secretariat of Vavuniya North, Nandukerni, and specifically, a…
In Their Absence: Families of the Disappeared Share Treasured Keepsakes
“Do you have anything that reminds you of your son/daughter/husband/grandchildren? Something that they used?” Mother/Father/Wife/Sister/Grandmother: “I have, son. I kept it safely. I washed my son’s blood-stained shirt, and kept it with…
The Evolution of Sri Lanka’s #Instameet
On March 26, a group of 13 or so created some confusion among the vendors at the old market on Sea Street in Negombo. “Where are you from?” was an often-repeated question.…