About

Vindhya Buthpitiya

I am an anthropologist working at the intersection of conflict and visual culture, examining the production and circulation of images within the context of the Sri Lankan civil war. I completed my PhD in Anthropology at University College London (UCL), and also hold an MA (Hons) in Social Anthropology from the University of St. Andrews and an MPhil in Development Studies from the University of Cambridge.

My current research is centred on the political work of popular photography in northern Sri Lanka. I explore the making and moving of analogue and digital photographies generated out of ethno-nationalist conflict through a variety of ethnographic contexts including sites of Tamil civilian protest and commemoration, photography studios, the visual economies of war, and social media-based community story-telling. I am presently working on a book titled Smoke, Shadow, Light: War and Photography in Northern Sri Lanka.

I am a part of the PhotoDemos Collective and also curate the Museum of Religious Freedom, Sri Lanka.