by Neville Weeraratne There is, on the title page of Nihal Fernando’s ‘Sri Lanka — A Personal Odyssey’ a photograph of a shadow of a man holding what must be a camera. It falls on a wide beach with a set of footprints leading to where the subject, Nihal Fernando himself stands. Beyond them and in the distance is a glimpse of the sea.
This is an image that gently nudges me into recognizing Nihal himself, one of the finest men of our time, a great artist, a selfless devotee, his skills indisputable. I do not know who took the picture but it is surely an inspired gesture and helps to illustrate a confession Nihal made on another occasion, in the Prologue to his ‘The Wild, the Free, the Beautiful’: “I do not choose my subjects, they chose me ..
.” “My odyssey”, says Nihal among the acknowledgments to his collection of photographs, “enabled me to reinforce and renew my faith in the charm and simplicity of ordinary folk whose friendship, as always, I have valued.” I think he said everything with that simple statement.
It involves everything: the people and the landscape as two indivisible factors that go into the making of Sri Lanka. Throughout this incredibly enchanted life, Nihal has enjoyed the company of his wife, Dodo, “who looked over my shoulder” right through many ventures, the studio, the exhibitions of photography, the publications and his unabated enthusiasms for his beloved Island. Nihal loved Sri Lanka passionately, every minute detail of it.
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