Archeo Logical Camera at Design Ashram, Kozhikode Reimagines Archaeology Through the Language of Photography

Kozhikode: Design Ashram, Kozhikode is currently hosting ‘Archeo Logical Camera’, a compelling and thought-provoking photographic exhibition by Mohamed A, which brings archaeology, photography, memory, and the act of seeing into a powerful and poetic conversation. The exhibition, a project by Aazhi Archives with Riyas Komu as Artistic Director, was inaugurated on 22 January 2026 by Mr. K. Krishnaraj, Officer, Pazhassiraja Archaeological Museum, and will remain open to the public until 6 February 2026.

At the heart of ‘Archeo Logical Camera’ lies a deceptively simple but profound question: what do photographs mean in archaeology? Traditionally treated as technical aids—framed by figure numbers and captions in reports and articles—photographs are often seen as secondary to artefacts. This exhibition turns that relationship around, inviting viewers to see photographs themselves as artefacts, charged with memory, absence, interpretation, and time.

The exhibition travels through Mohamed A’s long photographic engagement with archaeology-its sites, its practices, and its landscapes. His work asks what is present in a photograph and what is missing: the shadows, the tools, the footsteps, the gestures that lie outside the frame. It also questions the role of the photographer, is he a recorder, an interlocutor, or an artist? and explores the shared yet distinct ways in which both photographers and archaeologists construct meaning from fragments of the past.

Rather than offering a purely documentary gaze, Mohamed A’s photographs dwell on textures, traces, silences, and material memory. They move between scientific observation and poetic reflection, blurring the boundary between record and interpretation. In doing so, the exhibition opens up archaeology not just as a discipline of excavation, but as a deeply human way of engaging with time, loss, continuity, and imagination.

A significant and memorable moment for the exhibition was the visit of NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, who took time to view the works and engage with the ideas behind the project during her time in Kerala. Her visit brought a rare and meaningful resonance to the exhibition an encounter between two forms of exploration: one that looks outward into space, and another that looks inward into the layered histories of the earth. Her presence underscored the universal human impulse to explore, to document, and to make sense of worlds whether across galaxies or through the sedimented traces of human civilisation.

Speaking at the inauguration in Kozhikode, Mr. K. Krishnaraj highlighted the importance of such interdisciplinary projects in making archaeology accessible beyond academic spaces, and in encouraging the public to engage with history not only through objects, but also through images, narratives, and ways of seeing.

Artist Mohamed A added on the occasion, “With Archeo Logical Camera, I wanted to look at photographs not just as documents, but as objects that carry time, memory, and absence within them. Archaeology has always fascinated me because it is as much about what we imagine as it is about what we uncover. This body of work comes from years of walking through sites, landscapes, and traces of the past, and from trying to understand what it really means to look at history through a camera.”

‘Archeo Logical Camera’ is presented by Aazhi Archives, a platform committed to archiving and rethinking cultural memory and visual history, with Riyas Komu as the Artistic Director of the project. Design Ashram, Kozhikode, known for fostering meaningful conversations between design, art, and culture, provides a fitting setting for this exhibition, which is as intellectually rigorous as it is visually evocative.

With its blend of photography, archaeology, and philosophical inquiry, ‘Archeo Logical Camera’ invites viewers to slow down, look closely, and reconsider how we encounter the past-not as something fixed and complete, but as something continually re-seen, re-framed, and re-understood.


Exhibition Details:

Title: Archeo Logical Camera
Artist: Mohamed A
A project by: Aazhi Archives
Artistic Director: Riyas Komu
Venue: Design Ashram, Kozhikode
Inaugurated on: 22 January 2026
On view till: 6 February 2026

Disclaimer: This article is based on information and material provided by Viewpoint Public Relations Pvt. Ltd on behalf of the organisers and is published for informational purposes only.