2022 Feb 18
Sony World Photography Awards 2022 included about 170,000 entrants from 61 countries and over 340,000 images. Among the participants was Amal Prasad, a Sri Lankan in Qatar, who became a National Awards Winner.
His award-winning photograph “Struggle of Life” portrays the life and struggles of village fishermen. To learn more about the man behind the photography, we had a conversation with Amal, and here’s what he had to share.
- Tell us a bit about the back story of the photo you took that won the Sony Award?
This is a photo of “Ma Del” fishing and I named this “struggle of life” because the life of village fishermen is not easy. It’s a constant struggle for survival. One day, one of my good friends, Lahiru, told me about “Ma Del” fishing, which is taking place in their hometown. It takes place in the morning, so I came from Colombo to Tangalle, went directly to take this photo. But on that day, unfortunately, the fishing Net was green and there were not many fish caught – I was not satisfied with the photos I took. So, I told him that we’ll go the next day as well, and I stayed in Tangalle for another day and went in the morning around 5.30 am to see that the fishermen had changed their net to a red colour to my extreme satisfaction. The weather was also good, they had more fish than the day before, and finally, I had a successful photograph.
- What was your reaction when you found out that you won the Sony World Photography Award?
This same photo won 1st place at State Awards in Sri Lanka. But I never thought I would have an international award like this. When they emailed me, I was so shocked that I read the same email 3 times, and I still couldn’t believe that it had won the first place. I’m so happy to have won this award for my country as a Sri Lankan.
- What are some of the other exciting projects that you are currently involved in?
I’m a software engineer by profession; photography is my hobby. Mainly, I do landscape, fashion and portrait photography. There are a lot of photoshoots that I’ve planned on doing this year. I’m inviting all of you to visit my Instagram and Facebook pages – Zoncho Photography, to see my future work.
- How did your love for photography come about? Tell us about its inception.
I don’t come from the background of a photographer’s family. I used to capture images from my phone, later I saved some money and bought a small point-and-shoot camera and started to take photographs of leaves, flowers and anything that interested me at that time. After taking those pictures I used to post them on Facebook. After my A/Ls, I was following some good photographers like Prasad Hapuarachchi. They commented on my photographs with tips to improve, and I was learning a lot from them. I only learned photography through the internet; on YouTube and some photography Facebook groups like Art Gallery, studying the works of good photographers. Looking at their work made me fall in love with photography and always gave me the courage to learn more. That’s how it became my hobby. Now I spend a lot of time capturing beautiful moments and that’s something I genuinely enjoy.
- What does being a photographer mean to you?
It’s a meditation for me to be living in nature and capturing beautiful moments, showing everyone what nature means to me.
- What would you say are your top 3 subjects to capture?
My favourite subjects to capture are sunsets, sunrises, and nature.
- What is your creative process like?
I like to plan my shoots. Sometimes, it takes months. If I see somewhere beautiful, I mark them on my map, and I check where the sunrise and sunset will be, and where the other celestial objects like the Milky Way will be for night-time photography. Then I plan a good time for the shoot and go there. I don’t retouch them for a week so that I can see their mistakes. If they look good to me, I edit them and publish them. I like quality over quantity, so I wait for the good captures.
- What are some of the challenges you’ve had to face as a photographer? How did you overcome them?
In Sri Lanka when we go to certain places, there are issues regarding taking images, like permissions and payment requirements. So, creative freedom is less here. Getting permission for drone photography is also not an easy task. As we are promoting tourism as a country, this permission process needs to be addressed and made easy for a photographer to obtain permission. I believe it would be very convenient if this process can be digitised.
- What is one piece of advice you could give aspiring photographers?
My advice to all photographers is to always look at inspiration through your work, and try your best to get the practice. Practice will always make you perfect. Develop a hunger to learn, which will grow in the future. You will be amazed at what you can be if you put your mind to it. There are many places to learn now without paying a single cent, so use them to sharpen your skills.
- What are your plans for the future?
This is the first time I have applied for awards, and I secured three awards. 1st Place and 2nd Place in State Awards in Sri Lanka, and 1st Place in Sony World Photography Awards. This has empowered me to bring some more awards to this country. I plan to work towards it.
