by Rohan Wijesinha A film by Martin Pieris Lionel Wendt Arts Centre 24th February 2025 6.30pm Free Admission At the beginning of this month, the Barefoot Gallery hosted an exquisite exhibition of the photography of Nihal Fernando (NF), and of some of the photographers and artists who were inspired by him. Those who were privileged to see it would understand that the superlatives used to describe his artistry are woefully inadequate in describing his creative skill; turning the two dimensional into three.
..and even more.
What shaped this unique human being? What influenced him to become who he was? Where was his inspiration from? Always modest, never the one to pamper his own ego, NF never wrote a biography and would probably have baulked at the idea of one being done. He lived in the knowledge that his work would be his legacy, not just his photographs, but all that he fought for – to preserve the rich natural and cultural heritages of Sri Lanka. As such, it is fortuitous that in a completely different endeavour, timed almost perfectly to coincide with the aforementioned exhibition, is the release of the film “.
..in search of Nihal Fernando”.
This tries to answer some of these questions. The filmmaker Dr. Martin Pieris was born in Sri Lanka and lived here for the first 12 years of his life.
A child of diplomats, he travelled with his parents to Ghana and Australia, before finally settling in Australia. His background is in the field of commercial photography in Canberra.