Prominent German photographer visits Sri Lanka

Friday, 23 January 2015 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

A prominent German photographer, Ute Grabowsky is in Sri Lanka for a three-week assignment with the Photographic Society of Sri Lanka (PSSL) on a ‘Training the Trainer’ assignment. She has been sourced by the Senior Experten Service in Germany or popularly known as SES which provides experts in varied fields for overseas assignments. As PSSL is a non-profit organisation her visit has been sponsored by funds from the German Government.

From left: PSSL President Romesh de Silva, German Ambassador Dr. Jürgen Morhard, Ute Grabowsky and SES Local Representative Kosala Wickramanayake During this time she will be conducting many training programs exclusively for the society members. These day programs will include a wide variety of topics such as street photography, photo journalism, contemporary portraiture and understanding light. She will also present a program on ‘How to start a Photography Business’ as well as a post processing training program on Photoshop. During her stay she will visit Negombo, Galle, Kandy and Nuwara Eliya. She will also spend three days photographing and documenting 10 interesting places in Colombo which she will take back for presentation in Germany. Ute has over 30 years’ experience in the field and is one of the three main partners of Photothek, which is a leading photo agency on Germany. She being the official photographer of the Foreign minister has travelled to over 80 countries on official assignments. Through SES she has also worked on an expert capacity in Yeman and Niger where she was involved extensively in training women photographers to start self-employment projects. She is also credited with having taken the official photograph of the current Chancellor of Germany Andrea Merkel. Commenting on the program, PSSL President Romesh de Silva said that he was very grateful to SES and its local representative Kosala Wickramanayake for providing an opportunity to have a world-renowned photographer working with the society in training and knowledge transfer. “The hands-on workshops which she has been conducting since her arrival on 12 January have been very interesting and informative. Her expertise in managing light especially in outdoor situations has been much appreciated by participants.” De Silva was also thankful for the financial assistance given by the German Government in making her visit a reality. Grabowsky commenced her long and successful photographic career with a Leica camera given to her by her father. Coincidently, Lionel Wendt who was a pioneer member of the PSSL, then called the Photographic Society of Ceylon, was one of the two photographers in the world to have been invited by Leica to hold a one-man exhibition of photographs. This all-expenses-paid exhibition was held at the Camera Club in London in April 1938 and contained 54 enlargements of Ceylon, such as people at work, ancient and modern sculpture, traditional architectural motifs and creative composite pictures. Grabowsky will end her assignment on 2 February and will be back in Germany where she hopes to hold an exhibition of her work in Sri Lanka.