Words: Tina Edward Gunawardhana
Photographer Alice Luker first set foot in Sri Lanka as a teenager and ever since has fallen in love with this isle. Having visited
Sri Lanka countless times, on each extended visit Alice has travelled the length and breadth of Sri Lanka capturing various vistas of what she calls her second home.
In this issue she shines the spotlight on the unsung heroes, the people of Sri Lanka who are often off the radar.
"In the early hours of the morning, before dawn wakes the rest of the island with the ease of sunrise and birdsong, hundreds of thousands of Sri Lankans rise from their slumber. Life is far from glamorous for many of these individuals, yet trails of reassuring normality are gifted to the rest of us in their wake. To see them, to really see them, we have to look. Into the sea of ubiquitous, ever-present faces, working in every corner of the island" she says.
Alice calls these individuals the 'unsung heroes of
Sri Lanka'. "They are fuelled by an unimaginable strength of character, allowing them to repeat this arduous cycle every day under immense hardship. When I recall the most memorable people I’ve met in Sri Lanka, the faces of unsung heroes are those who remain firmly etched in my mind, their impressions resistant to the passing of time."
