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“Dharmadeepa is a series of beautiful photographs by Stephen Champion documenting Sri Lanka’s village culture and landscape, the timeless cycle of nature and the simple art of living. Having previously documented the violence and horror of the island’s conflict the photographer now seeks to reveal a world of tolerance and peaceful coexistence. This project is dedicated to Champion’s close friend Manik Sandrasagra, Sri Lanka’s celebrated cultural guru and environmental maverick who died last year. Stephen Champion has had photographs of Sri Lanka exhibited worldwide.”

“It is a remarkable book full of delicate tones, captured moments and poignant contrasts”.

“The sense of initial shock is quickly supplanted by images that tell a grander story, indicate an ancient landscape of peace, immensity and a distinct spiritual tranquillity.

This book dramatises an all too familiar tragedy, the gory glory of the troubled isle held up in his careful juxtapositions of beauty and tragedy, cause and effect with images laid side by side to devastating effect.”

“Stephen Champion has photographed the peoples of Sri Lanka at war and at peace. His photographs, here compiled in a new book, Sri Lanka War Stories, are an excursion into life and death on a very small island some 31 kilometers off the southern coast of India.
Stephen Champion’s wealth of experience and access to all aspects of Sri Lankan society, the JVP, Tamil Tigers and government forces alike, shines through in his photographs. It is especially revealing to view his images through the lens of Ondaatje’s equally powerful work of fiction.”

“Although a photograph can only capture a single moment in the flux and process of life, for me Stephen Champion’s images do more than this. The moment is there, but so too is its context, caught not only in the perceived space but also in time; so that each image is emblematic of matters larger and deeper.”
“The best account I know of the recent history of Sri Lanka.”