Buddha Statue Mihintale, Sri Lanka
Huge Buddha statue, perched high on a hilltop, in Mihintale, Sri Lanka.
Situated atop a rocky outcrop the Buddha statue at Mihintale in Sri Lanka is huge and great fun to photograph.
Situated on a rocky outcrop, just 11 km north east of Anuradhapura the Mihintale site is of enormous spiritual significance to the Sinhalese as the place where Buddhism originated in Sri Lanka.
The route to the top follows a 1,500 year old paved road to a terrace, half way up the 311 meter hill. A climb up many, many steps follows.
Finally the visitor is rewarded with wonderful views of inspiring monuments and the surrounding landscape.
Combining Traditional and Contemporary Image Making
This image was originally made, way back in 1992, with the following camera kit:
Hasselblad 500C camera
Hasselblad 80 mm f/2.8 Plannar lens
Kodak Ektacolor Gold 160 film
I used a polarizing filter to dramatically darken the blue sky. The result was quite intense with the near white Buddha statue standing out against a deep blue sky.
I've previously sold the original color print, which I'd hand print in the darkroom to 16"x16" (40x40cm) in size, through exhibitions.
Wanting to increase the graphic nature of the image and enhance the luminance of the statue I opted for a black and white rendition this time around.
The original color negative was scanned and photoshop employed to produce the black and white image you see above.
The outcome is similar to what would have been achieved with black and white film and a deep red filter.
The red filter passes (i.e., lightens) its own color and blocks (i.e., darkens) the other primary (blue and green) colors.
As a result you can see how much darker the already deep blue sky is rendered. It’s now almost black which really enhances the contrast of the image and adds prominence to the Buddha statue.
Why Travel To Sri Lanka?
Travel can be seen as an attempt to escape from the difficulties associated with one's own life. From my experience this is not always the case.
Nothing induces concentration or inspires memory like an alien landscape or a foreign culture.
Romantics believe that it is possible to lose yourself in an exotic place like Sri Lanka.
My experience, possibly brought on by the stresses of an alien environment or the repetitive physical effort associated with a climb, is somewhat different.
At such times I feel an intense nostalgia, a hearkening back to an earlier stage in life. But this does not happen at the exclusion of the exotic present.
What makes the whole experience vivid, and sometimes thrilling, is the juxtaposition of the present and the past.
It might be that a particularly happy childhood memory is revisited from a mountaintop, or that your suddenly engulfed by moments of intense quietness between the madness of a local bus ride and the frenzy of a mass religious event.
To really live is to be engrossed in the moment.
Do you travel to learn and, thereafter, contribute or to shop duty free?
