![\"Raghu](\"https:\/\/static.toiimg.com\/photo\/msid-130527930\/raghu-rai-image-credit-ashwani-nagpal.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
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Born in 1942, Rai came into photography almost by chance but quickly rose to international prominence. By his late twenties, he was exhibiting in Paris, where his work caught the attention of Henri Cartier-Bresson, who would later nominate him to Magnum Photos in 1977. \u201cI had my first exhibition in Paris in 1972, with 50 pictures of my work in India and 25 pictures of Bangladeshi refugees and the crisis there. Bresson was the first visitor. I wasn\u2019t his student; he related to me as an equal because I had got great reviews from the French press, saying, \u2018Great times for photography in Paris because Raghu Rai is showing here\u2019,\u201d Rai said of his association with the French master.At the core of his practice was an insistence on closeness \u2014 to people, to moments, to truth. \u201cIn photography, they say if you are not close enough, your photograph is not good enough,\u201d he said. He described the act of photographing as deeply immersive: \u201cIf your energy is concentrated, then your mind, body and spirit get into a rhythm, and at that moment, you receive all that is there in front of you through your viewfinder.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
![\"Raghu](\"https:\/\/static.toiimg.com\/photo\/msid-130527942\/raghu-rai-image-credit-shanth-kumar.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
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Rai began his career in the analog era, whose permanence he deeply valued. \u201cSilver gelatin prints have become very expensive, but their life is 150 years and more,\u201d he noted, though he did do a lot of work with digital in his later years.He also reflected on how much the profession had changed. \u201cThe kind of freedom we enjoyed as photojournalists and the access we had in any given situation, even to a prime minister, is unthinkable now,\u201d he said.Over nearly four decades in active journalism, including his tenure at The Statesman, Rai remained conscious of the fleeting nature of news. \u201cIn a newspaper, stories die daily,\u201d he said. \u201cSo, I was mindful about my photographs living beyond dated stories.\u201d In the hours after his death, social media filled with some of his most unforgettable frames \u2014 among them the 1982 Baroda photo essay capturing the wordless companionship between a blind Muslim beggar and a mentally challenged Hindu girl.In later years, he was sharply critical of the direction photography had taken. \u201cThe bulk of photography today is happy, snappy, colourful pictures that don\u2019t come into the category of fine art,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n
![\"Raghu](\"https:\/\/static.toiimg.com\/photo\/msid-130527965\/raghu-rai-image-credit-pti.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
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\u201cDemocratisation is good. But what exactly are these people doing? Selfies, self-love, making stupid faces? The worst thing is that even inside temples and churches, people are standing together and making faces. It\u2019s become unbearable now,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n
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Poll<\/p>\n
What aspect of Raghu Rai photography do you think had the most impact on society?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
For Rai, the role of the photographer remained a serious one. \u201cA serious photographer, a serious writer will use his pen, his lens for a meaningful expression that touches society, not to please himself,\u201d he said.Even in his eighties, Rai remained engaged with the world, though age slowed him down. Even during the pandemic, he ventured out to take photos of the CAA and farmers\u2019 protests. In an age flooded with images, his work reminds us that photography is not about capturing moments but keeping them alive.<\/div>\n
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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In one of Raghu Rai\u2019s most haunting photographs from the Bhopal Gas tragedy, a grieving father cradles his dead child \u2014 the stark black and white image titled \u2018Burial of an Unknown Child\u2019 came to define not just one of the worst industrial disasters the world had seen, but the power of photojournalism itself.Rai, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8931,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[133],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-8930","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-country"},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8930\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"'If](\"https:\/\/static.toiimg.com\/thumb\/msid-130527562,imgsize-91410,width-400,height-225,resizemode-4\/raghu-rai-file-photo.jpg\")
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