To accompany the exhibition, Legacy of Ceylon: Art and Photography of Sri Lanka on view at Phoenix Art Museum November 27, 2021 - April 24, 2022
Legacy of Ceylon: Art and Photography of Sri Lanka will feature original black-and-white photographs by Quintus Fernando, PhD, who passed away in 2004. These photographs were only discovered within the past decade and were likely taken just prior to the Fernando family’s emigration. This exhibition represents the first time these works will be exhibited to the public. Capturing images of not just Buddhist ruins and other iconic locations, the photographs depict simple, everyday slices of life in mid-20th century Sri Lanka, including scenes of fishermen, village women gathering water, and other moments of rural activity. These photographs, featured alongside works of historical significance, document the transition of a nation and a people exploring the potential of hard-earned independence.
Mist and Rain celebrates the Sri Lankan chapter of the photographic career of Quintus Fernando. He was born in Columbo in 1926, the son of a tea and rubber plantation owner. His mother raised five children, of whom Quintus was the eldest, before taking a law degree and practicing as the first female lawyer at the Hulftdorp Courts in Colombo. Quintas was educated at St. Thomas College, Colombo, followed by the University of Colombo where he majored in sciences. Following graduation in 1949, he went to the USA to complete a PhD in chemistry at the University of Louisville, Kentucky in 1953. He returned to teach at the University of Colombo and then in 1957 departed again for the USA to pursue a successful academic career. He continued to pursue photography in the USA, but the Sri Lankan chapter proved to be a short one, from the mid-1940s to 1957. All the photographs published here date from this period.
Hardcover, 136 pages.
