Koushiki Jana’s mini-album: The Unseen Archive


Photographer’s Note: In the cacophony of progress, amidst the gleaming facades and the relentless pursuit of newness, there exists a silent testament to the passage of time. These are the forgotten canvases of our everyday, the unheralded keepers of stories whispered by decay. Here, in the faded hues of a peeling wall, in the intricate filigree of moss, and the enduring trails of water stains, we find an archive. Not of grand monuments or celebrated victories, but of countless ordinary moments, of breaths taken, and lives lived, echoing within the very fabric of our surroundings. Each crack is a memory etched, each crumbling plaster a chapter turned. The tangled wires, the broken panes, the tenacious roots—they are not mere imperfections, but eloquent scripts of endurance, resilience, and the slow, beautiful surrender to the elements. This series invites you to pause, to look beyond the obvious, and to decipher the profound narratives held within these ‘unseen archives’. It is a homage to the quiet dignity of deterioration, a meditation on the fleeting yet eternal nature of existence, and a revelation that even in disintegration, there is an enduring, understated beauty waiting to be acknowledged. For in truly seeing the unseen, we begin to understand the deeper textures of our shared human experience.


Kousiki Jana has long explored the interplay between images and perception. Over the years, he has presented countless photographs before countless viewers, observing their instinctive urge to identify, relate, and categorise—Isn’t this that? Isn’t this somewhere? Isn’t this someone? What is this called? Where did you find it? When were you there? What’s so special about this? This relentless pursuit of recognition, this imposed obligation to provide meaning—he seeks to break free from it. Photography became an integral part of Koushiki’s daily life around 2011. Since then, his journey has spanned numerous avenues—wedding photography, product photography, event photography, and more. Yet, by 2021–22, his perspective underwent a transformation. For him, photography evolved into the performance of pure consciousness. It became his medium of self-inquiry, self-expression, and self-proclamation.

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