Vindhya Buthpitiya, "A Volatile Picture: War and the Political Work of Photography in Sri Lanka" (U Washington Press, 2026)

About this episode

The episode discusses Dr. Vindhya Buthpitiya's ethnography on the role of photography in the Tamil political imagination during and after the Sri Lankan civil war.

A Volatile Picture: War and the Political Work of Photography in Sri Lanka (U Washington Press, 2026) by Dr. Vindhya Buthpitiya is a groundbreaking ethnography that explores how, in the context of Sri Lanka’s protracted civil war and its turbulent aftermath, photography has become bound to the Tamil political imagination. From state-commissioned images meant to surveil and rebel documentation of armed resistance, to the fragile memorials created from identity photographs of the disappeared, A Volatile Picture traces the making and moving of images across borders, communities, and generations. Studio portraits, passport pictures, family albums, atrocity photography, social media posts, and more act not only as records of loss and horror but also as vital tools for protest, solidarity, and the realization of alternate political futures. Drawing on transnational archival and ethnographic encounters and long-term fieldwork in northern Sri Lanka, Dr. Buthpitiya situates photography as both a volatile medium and a political practice. Photographs emerge here as incendiary agents—simultaneously evidencing and triggering violence, sustaining memory, and inciting new visions of…

People in this episode

Guest: Vindhya Buthpitiya

Topics covered

• photography
• civil war
• Tamil political imagination
• ethnography
• visual culture
• memory
• political practice

Keywords

• photography
• Sri Lanka
• civil war
• Tamil
• ethnography
• political imagination
• visual culture
• memory
• protest
• solidarity

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: U Washington Press

Books & works: A Volatile Picture

Places: Sri Lanka, northern Sri Lanka

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