The PhotoMuse Festival is founded on the PhotoMuse Museum’s mission to promote and propagate photography in all its forms. Rooted in humanism and camaraderie, the Festival seteks to bridge divides across gender, race, and nationality. At its core is a belief in photography’s power to reshape perspectives, shift attitudes, and foster empathy across the world.
Date
October 2 - December 30, 2026
Venue
PhotoMuse Museum Gallery and several parallel spaces in the state.
Festival Theme
Open Origins - Open Ends
The Selectors
Herbert Ascherman Jr.
Herbert Ascherman Jr. is an internationally acclaimed photographer with over 50 years of experience in fine art and portrait photography, renowned for his black-and-white and platinum prints. His work has been exhibited and published across the United States, Europe, Japan, and India. He has served as an advisor to PhotoMuse – The Museum of Photography, India, since its inception in 2014.
Michael Weil
Michael Weil is a distinguished photographer and art historian specializing in the history of photography. He holds a Ph.D. in Art History from Case Western Reserve University and has taught at several institutions, including Case Western Reserve University, the Cleveland Institute of Art, and Cleveland State University. His work combines fine art photography with scholarly research, contributing significantly to the study of photographic history.
Deepak John Mathew
Deepak John Mathew is a designer, educator, and photographer, serving as the Innovation Ambassador for the Indian Innovation Council and Professor & Head of the Department of Design at Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad. A former Commonwealth Fellow and NID professor, his work bridges design, innovation, and conceptual photography.
Aditya Arya
Aditya Arya is a renowned Indian photographer whose career began in 1980. He is the founding director and curator of Museo Camera, South Asia’s largest not-for-profit photography museum, and is widely recognized for his contributions to advertising, corporate, and documentary photography.
Leonard Murray Metcalf
Leonard Murray Metcalf is the founder and head teacher of Lens School of Photography in Australia. Len is renowned for his exquisite photographs and supportive, gentle teaching style. His broad experience both as an art educator, juror of several photo events, photographer and fine-art print maker sets him among the top photo artists of his country. Len has been a Mainline photo product Ambassador for many years now.
The Curator
Dr. Unni Pulikkal S.
Dr. Unni Pulikkal S. is an Indian photo-artist, printmaker, author, educator, and physician. A Senior Fellow in Creative Photography from the Ministry of Culture, Government of India, and an Associate of the Royal Photographic Society, London, he is the founder and curator of PhotoMuse – The Museum of Photography and the Art Museum of Love in Kerala. His work spans photographic art, curation, photo history, and contemporary visual culture.