Sri Lanka

"I was lucky at the casino that night; I met Dayv Mattt. He told me he was photographing in Colombo and sent me some of his pictures. I was impressed because they made me happy. He had somehow managed to capture the raucous joie de vivre of eventhe poorest of the city's inhabitants. Perhaps because he was seeing Colombo as an observant foreigner and not on some high-paid photo shoot promoting the city for tourists, Dayv saw scenes down backstreets and every day situations that locals don't think curious, and brochure photographers would spurn. Yet visitors would find them intriguing, as well as - in many cases - sheer fun. Although these photos have a dark side, light and brightness and a modest exuberance of a confident citizenry shine through. These remarkable photographs reveal another side of Colombo, of its denizens coping with life beyond the restored heritage buildings, high-rise hotels and, yes, the casinos. Here is a fascinating memento of a Colombo that is disappearing as progress brings a better life." - Royston Ellis"In this book Dayv captures some of the most interesting parts of Colombo. Class divides Colombo, like any city, with most Colombars in the south not knowing or understanding what's to the north of the Fort area. Dayv, in his trishaw and foot journeys, has been entirely oblivious to these psychic divides so what you get is a picture of Colombo as it is rather than what it's supposed to be. It's a fascinating look at the ordinary and generally ignored, at least among people with fancy cameras. What you get are the streets and the people of Colombo, the garbage, the muck, the beauty, and above all the colors andcharacter of our lovely and rapidly changing city. One of my favorite pics is of the wash basin in the Young Men's Buddhist Association, which is near the Port. The juxtaposition of a nice view with a very functional sink is something I found interesting, and it's also someplace I've been before. I remember being struck by that view and feeling a sense of discovery, a sense that I was somewhere quite ordinary for the people that worked there but quite strange for me and my suburban fellows from the south. I hope you get a bit of that thrill of exploration from this book." - Indi Samarajiva