A World Away

Scenes from the Sri Lankan civil war: the documentary photographer's long-buried archive published for the first time

Texas-based photographer Hunter Barnes' (born 1977) black-and-white portraits of cultures and communities often ignored by the mainstream are renowned for their stark beauty. In 2006, Barnes travelled to Sri Lanka, intending to document the devastating aftermath of the 2004 tsunami. Instead, he arrived amid rapidly increasing tensions in the civil war and a breakdown of the ceasefire established four years previously. It has taken Barnes more than 15 years to process the experience: "what I lived and felt has been buried far in my mind," he writes, "sealed shut in a box of film and a journal I am just now able to read." Spending his time in the Eastern Province, Barnes documented the impact of the resurgence of the war on the Tamil people. These portraits are accompanied by his handwritten diary entries from the time.