On a desk inside Chari Godakanda’s studio, sits a photograph
of a woman and two small boys on a beach near Colombo, in the small island of Sri Lanka where Godakanda was born. “This was one of my very first photographs I ever took.”

His artistic vision has always been fueled by emotion and passion rather than mechanics. “As children, we are always told to follow the rules and color within the lines. I was told that as an artist, I had to pick a medium or a focus and stick to it.” Never one to fully comply with the so-called “rules”, he began to explore his photography outside of the confines of convention.

Frequently working in series, Godakanda is interested in photographing an array of subjects, whether that subject be human, the desert or a high rise in a concrete jungle.“ In my last humans series, it was more about capturing architecture than bodies. I was interested in the lines, curves and bumps of the human body.”

Godakanda hopes that his photography captures life, stillness and a universal thread that weaves us together.