Wild Clicks – The Journey of an Amateur turned Artist

Sriyan de Silva Wijeyeratne’s Wildlife Story

Sriyan de Silva Wijeyeratne’s piece on wildlife is an ode to amateurism.  While it positions itself amongst the greater books of professional wildlife photography, it is actually a down to earth book on what one can do with just a camera and lens.

While one can argue the merits and demerits of different brands of cameras from a Canon to a Samsung, Fuji or Nikon, Sriyan started his wildlife adventures with a low end Nikon with just one lens.  As he himself says, it was not the camera that mattered, nor the patience of a professional photographer; but just chance and understanding his environment, which helped him to take some great pictures, and capture moments in life that tended more towards experience rather than the creation of artistic masterpieces.

As the name of his debut publication ‘Wild Clicks’ indicates, Sriyan’s wildlife pictorials are more the experience of the accidental tourist, who spontaneously captured a moment in time; rather than the painstaking process of creating a series of wildlife episodes.  While saying that, it does not mean the pictures he took were just matters of chance.  Sriyan was a student of careful observation in the wilds.  He had been a herpetologist, keeping his own brand of unusual pets like some of the close quarter pictures of the serpent in his book, even though frightening to the uninitiated, explains his keen understanding of the species.

In the professional world Sriyan is best known for his role in the world of cyberspace.  In his eight years as the head of Microsoft Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, he positioned the brand, fighting against the odds of intellectual property rights and creating the need for original software, in markets where the possibility seemed rather slim at the time.

In a way, this book is the total reverse of that world he inhabited, or his current role as the CEO of Textured Jersey Lanka PLC.  Wild Clicks could be considered the unveiling of his alter ego, his other self, which allows him to take the time out of his busy corporate life to have his feet on dusty ground; photographing wildlife, capturing their beautiful moments for eternity.

Sriyan by his own admission is not a professional photographer and would not sit for hours to capture a professional picture.  His style has a kind of Hemingway approach.  Wildlife shots that are simple, unadorned yet stark in their almost life like depiction.   He uses the noun rather than the adjective in his pictures, the same way Hemingway did in his writing; allowing the picture to tell the story in all its raw simplicity.   The affect is sometimes more telling than the technical mastery of the professional.

It's not that the magic of Photoshop is not used in his book; it is artfully used, especially in the black and white and gray tone pictures that illustrate the visual perspective of predator and prey.  There are masterpieces of zebras and cheetahs in black and white, which convey an understanding of what it might probably look like in the visual perspective of the animal kingdom!

But on the other hand, his capture of the green vine snake in all its ferocity may be considered a unique moment in photography and the steady hand of its captor.  Sriyan has also had his quieter moments but one can see his mastery of the equipment when looking at pictures like ‘Love Bites’, ‘Speed Thrills’, ‘Optical Challenge’, ‘Parental Advise’, ‘Masters of Camouflage’ and many more.

This is not just a book about Sri Lanka.  Sriyan’s photography excursions to many other parts of the world shows that he is not just trying to present the Sri Lankan idiom, but is giving a much broader perspective of what a lens can capture if it has the eye of an adventurer behind it.  His objective is more poetic than descriptive.  In a sense, it endeavours to capture a deeper meaning to the relationship camera and lens has with their subject.

Sriyan’s book therefore falls amongst a collector’s item, going beyond the mere coffee table formula.  One could say that is the depiction of an amateur’s journey towards becoming a true artist!