View of Nuwara Eliya from the Ramboda pass, Sri Lanka 1862 - 1903

W.L.H. Skeen & Co. captured ‘View of Nuwara Eliya from the Ramboda pass, Sri Lanka’ using photography, a technology still in its relative infancy. It presents a landscape touched by the burgeoning global tea trade under British colonial rule. Skeen, a commercial photographer, documented Ceylon during a period of intense transformation. His work visualizes the exotic allure of the island, enticing investment and immigration. Yet, this representation obscures the displacement and exploitation of local labor inherent in the tea plantations that redefined the landscape. The romantic vista, with its rolling hills and dramatic skies, contrasts sharply with the lived realities of those who toiled in its fields. We are invited to consider whose perspective dominates the frame and whose stories remain untold. The aesthetic beauty invites contemplation on the complex intersections of power, representation, and the human cost of progress.