RAKI NIKAHETIYA
RAKI NIKAHETIYA
What is a nation? How is it formed, and of what is it composed? These questions guided Nikahetiya’s inquiry following his relocation to the United Kingdom in 2014. Over five years, he visited more than thirty historically significant sites, collecting minute samples of natural and human-made materials - from plant matter adjacent to the earliest known human footprints in the UK (c. 800,000 years old) to corroded metal near the world’s first iron bridge.
Each sample was coated in pure gold dust to enable imaging with a scanning electron microscope, revealing ultrastructural landscapes at the nanoscale. At this level, history appears stripped of politics, dynasties, or cultural narratives; the resulting imagery portrays otherworldly landscapes, evoking the fundamental materials and processes that constitute both the land and human legacy.
Through this series, Nikahetiya experiments with perception, inviting reflection on identity, heritage, and the concept of home. By focusing on the invisible and overlooked, he challenges conventional understandings of nationhood, highlighting the physical traces that link past, present, and future.
All images were produced at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), New Delhi, with support from King’s College London. The series was shortlisted for the Royal Photographic Society International Exhibition 2021 and the IPE163 Award.
800,000 BC. A plant matter sample at Happisburgh beach in Norfolk – where the first fossilized hominid footprints in the UK, potentially belonging to Homo Antecessor and the oldest known hominid footprints outside Africa where found. Great Britain was connected to mainland Europe during that interglacial period.
2021
Hahnemühle, FineArt Pearl (Gloss) archival paper
Edition 3+1AP
60 × 60 CM
1920 AD. A soil sample taken on the banks of the river Thames, London – the Thames was the launch point from of the British Empire fleet expanding its reign to other dominions. By 1920, Great Britain was the largest empire in World history. Within a century this context has changed entirely.
2021
Hahnemühle, FineArt Pearl (Gloss) archival paper
Edition 3+1AP
60 × 60 CM
Site Visit (2016). Richborough, Kent - the first Roman Fort in the Great Britain.
400,000 BC. A sample of ancient plant matter was discovered near Swanscombe, Kent, at the site where the earliest known Neanderthal remains in the UK were found: the skull of a young woman. Neanderthal hunter-gatherers are believed to have returned to Britain multiple times between then and around 50,000 years ago.
2021
Hahnemühle, FineArt Pearl (Gloss) archival paper
Edition 3+1AP
60 × 60 CM
793 AD. Invasion of the Holy Island of Lindisfarne, first recorded Danish invasion – arrival of the Vikings to Britain.
2021
Hahnemühle, FineArt Pearl (Gloss) archival paper
Edition 3+1AP
60 × 60 CM
IITD, New Delhi, 2020. Gold-coated samples of soil and found objects at various sites prior to Electron-Microscope imaging.
1215 AD. A plant matter sample taken near Runnymede, Surrey – the site believed to have been the sealing place for the Magna Carta, where King John of England agreed a pact with rebel Barons – a significant peace treaty of the period and certain aspects remain valid to date. But neither side kept their commitments after signing the treaty, leading to a civil war known as the First Baron’s War.
2021
Hahnemühle, FineArt Pearl (Gloss) archival paper
Edition 3+1AP
60 × 60 CM
5th Century AD. A decomposed wood sample taken near Mucking in Essex – over 40,000 artefacts where unearthed at this site, ranging from Neolithic, Bronze age, Iron age to a Roman cemetery. Amongst these also one of the earliest known Anglo-Saxon settlement in the UK. Unlike other sites this particular site gave an insight on daily Anglo-Saxon life on the isles.
2021
Hahnemühle, FineArt Pearl (Gloss) archival paper
Edition 3+1AP
60 × 60 CM
Site Visit (2017). Paviland Cave, Gower Peninsula, South Wales. The burial site of the “Red Lady of Paviland”, the first Homo Sapiens remains on the British Isles.
1781 AD. A metal rust sample taken near the Iron Bridge, Shropshire – often arguably titled the Birthplace of the Industrial revolution and spreading throughout the world from the UK, creating a transition and radical change from hand production of goods to mechanical and new manufacturing processes.
2021
Hahnemühle, FineArt Pearl (Gloss) archival paper
Edition 3+1AP
60 × 60 CM
1485 AD. A plant matter sample taken near Bosworth Field, Warwickshire – the battle of Bosworth Field was the last significant battle of the Wars of the Roses, following the Hundred Years War, giving rise to the house of Tudor and the end of the Plantagenet dynasty.
2021
Hahnemühle, FineArt Pearl (Gloss) archival paper
Edition 3+1AP
60 × 60 CM
IITD, New Delhi, 2020. Electron-Microscopy imaging process.