Chris Sorensen | Sri Lanka

Photo © Chris Sorensen-All Rights Reserved

I've seldom featured work of Sri Lanka on The Travel Photographer Blog, and I wonder whether it's because professional travel photographers are not interested/active in this magnificent country, or if it's eclipsed by India.

So I'm glad to have found the work of Chris Sorensen whose website has a nice gallery of Sri Lanka. I've traveled more or less through all its western coast for about 2 weeks, and the gallery reminded my of its beauty. It also reminded me of photo shoot with the traditional stilt fishermen in the southern tip of the island. This is an ancient method of catching fish, quite primitive and one which give poor results, but it's a virtual icon of Sri Lanka...and the fishermen, although probably unable to make a living from it, do earn money from tourists and photographers.

A long pole is stuck in the seabed, not too far from the shore, and another shorter pole is tied to it in order to create a perch for the fisherman, who can stay there for hours catching fish during the incoming surf. I recall wading in the surf, waiting for the sunset to provide the right background to these fishermen.

Chris Sorensen is a portrait & travel photographer based in Hong Kong (another escapee from the corporate world!), and took up photography full time. He was the Grand Prize winner of the 2013 PDN Faces photo competition and a Finalist in the 2013 Kuala Lumpur International Photo Awards. His work was also awarded Honorable Mentions in the Portraiture and Fine Art categories of the 2011 International Photography Awards, as well as Honorable Mentions in the Portraiture, Lifestyle, and Fine Art categories of the 2010 International Photography Awards. His photographs appeared in

Condé Nast Traveller (UK), Monocle, AFAR, Hemispheres, Hong Kong Tatler, The Financial Times, Australian Art Collector, SILKROAD, Belle,PDN, Die Weltwoche, Veckans Aff ärer, The Phoenix, Hospitality Design, Philips, Eurosport Asia, and Gansevoort Hotels.