Dominic Sansoni

Dominic Sansoni has worked as a professional photographer since 1980. He was born in Colombo and educated at St. Peter’s College, Colombo and Farnham College of Art, England (1979). Dominic’s photography has an emphasis on documentary and travel assignments. His work captures the quintessential images of Sri Lankan architecture, festivals, and public and domestic spaces to showcase the breadth and richness of cultural heritage and contemporary lives on the island nation. He is always fascinated by how people live; their private space and sense of style within a home. This curiosity and enthusiasm has taken him down many paths and is humbled by how often he is allowed to intrude into people’s homes and share their personal space.

Dominic’s notable exhibitions are Symbiotic Organisms, Bawa 100 Celebrations, Lunuganga, Sri Lanka (2020), Maldives- Black & White, Colomboscope, Colombo (2019), The Island From Above with Sebastian Posingis, Barefoot Gallery, Colombo (2018), Colour- Ceylon, Friday Sari Project, London (2018), ’The Jaffna Home,’ Portraits of Intervention, Aicon Gallery, New York (2017), Alters, 7th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane (2012-2013), Sacred Space, Kathmandu International Arts Festival, Nepal (2012), Sacred Space, ‘Reflejos’ Havana, Cuba (2011) and Dreams, Chobi Mela VI, International Festival of Photography, Dhaka (2011). Dominic has published several books of his work, the best-known ones are Sri Lanka -Resplendent Isle (1989), Lunuganga Geoffrey Bawa’s Garden (1990) and Bawa: The Sri Lankan Gardens (2017). His most recent publications are Island from Above with Sebastian Posingis (2017), Mauritius Colour (2010) and Incognito (2011). Recent personal projects have been the documentation of the vernacular architecture of South India, and a study of ‘Sacred Space’ in Sri Lanka. His pictures have appeared in numerous magazines including the TIME, Serendib, and Asiaweek.

For Tonight No Poetry Will Serve Dominic is contributing experimental prints from his most recent body of work made during the course of 2020-2021. Here he playfully uses techniques that share an affinity with the works of the pioneering American pop artists. In a similar spirit, Dominic captures the everyday in almost a diarist fashion and makes an arrangement out of the selection of the sets of photographs. The result of the experiment presents itself as a document that becomes a record of the absurdities of our time, as a critique of mass culture and mirrors the geopolitical tensions in the region.

Dominic Sansoni lives and works in Colombo, Sri Lanka.