The Fishermen of Sri Lanka

By Adam Docker

‘There’s something about fishermen that has always fascinated me. Perhaps it’s because fishing is one of the oldest professions in the world. There’s a rawness to it, almost Neanderthal, that connects us back to survival.

When I first saw photographs of Sri Lanka’s stilt fishermen in a National Geographic magazine as a child, I was transfixed. Their silhouettes perched above the waves felt otherworldly, almost mythical.

In 2022 I finally travelled down the East Coast of Sri Lanka on a Royal Enfield motorbike and I managed to locate them. I spent the afternoon photographing them as the tide came in. Watching them balance against the restless sea. As I stood in the water snapping away, fighting the currant from knocking me over, I took in the moment.

Back in Colombo, as the sun was sinking into a pink sky, I took a walk along the beach and I came across a fisherman sorting through his nets on the beach. The scene couldn’t have been more different to the stilt fishermen. His hands moved instinctively, pulling, untangling, preparing as the sky glowed behind him.’