A street food vendor sells fresh rotti and vadai at Gotagogama, the ad hoc village of tents, shacks, and portable toilets that have sprung up on Galle Face Green, in downtown Colombo. Set up almost a month ago, the village is home to a core of protestors calling for the resignation of Sri Lankan President Gotabhaya Rajapakse and his government, who’s corruption and ineptitude have been blamed for creating the worst economic crisis in the country’s modern history. In addition to the resident dissidents, Gotagogama sees a constant ebb and flow of protestors from all over the city and its suburbs, driven by widespread shortages of electricity, fuel, cooking gas, and medicine, to join in the strident call for the government to step down. Sri Lanka, May 2022.
Unaware of the economic catastrophe about to overrun him in few short weeks, a food vendor sets up his kiosk, selling sandwiches, buns, and rolls, in the Pettah, Colombo’s market district, in mid-January 2020.Continue reading “Breakfast Kiosk, Keyser Street, Pettah”→