Raghu Rai (born 1942), is an

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

photographer A photographer (the Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who makes photographs. Duties and types of photographers As in other ...

and photojournalist. He was a protégé of

Henri Cartier-Bresson Henri Cartier-Bresson (; 22 August 1908 – 3 August 2004) was a French humanist photographer considered a master of candid photography, and an early user of 35mm film. He pioneered the genre of street photography, and viewed photography as cap ...

, who appointed Rai, then a young photojournalist, to

Magnum Photos Magnum Photos is an international photographic cooperative owned by its photographer-members, with offices in New York City, Paris, London and Tokyo. It was founded in 1947 in Paris by photographers Robert Capa, David "Chim" Seymour, Maria Eisn ...

in 1977. Rai became a photographer in 1965, and a year later joined the staff of ''

The Statesman A statesman or stateswoman typically is a politician who has had a long and respected political career at the national or international level. Statesman or Statesmen may also refer to: Newspapers United States * ''The Statesman'' (Oregon), a n ...

'', a New Delhi publication. In 1976, he left the paper and became a freelance photographer. From 1982 until 1992, Rai was the director of photography for ''

India Today ''India Today'' is a weekly Indian English-language news magazine published by Living Media India Limited. It is the most widely circulated magazine in India, with a readership of close to 8 million. In 2014, ''India Today'' launched a new o ...

''. He has served on the jury for

World Press Photo World Press Photo Foundation is an independent, non-profit organization based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Founded in 1955, the organization is known for holding an annual press photography contest. Since 2011, World Press Photo has organized a ...

from 1990 to 1997. He is known for his books, ''Raghu Rai's India: Reflections in Colour'' and ''Reflections in Black and White''.

Early life

Rai was born in the village of

Jhang Jhang (Punjabi, ur, ), ) is the capital city of Jhang District, in the central portion of the province of Punjab, Pakistan. Situated on the east bank of the Chenab river, it is the 18th largest city of Pakistan by population. The historic ...

Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising a ...

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

(now in

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

). He was the youngest of four children.

Career

Rai started learning photography in 1962 under his elder brother Sharampal Chowdhry, better known as S Paul who is a photographer, and in 1965 joined "The Statesman" newspaper as its chief photographer. He and his fellow journalist

Saeed Naqvi Saeed Naqvi is senior Indian journalist, television commentator, interviewer. He has interviewed world leaders and personalities in India and abroad, which appear in newspapers, magazines and on national television, remained editor of the ''Wor ...

visited maharishi’s ashram in the spring of 1968 when

The Beatles The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the most influential band of all time and were integral to the developmen ...

arrived. Rai left "The Statesman" in 1976 to work as picture editor for "Sunday," a weekly news magazine published in Calcutta. Impressed by an exhibit of his work in Paris in 1971,

nominated Rai to join

in 1977. Rai left "Sunday" in 1980 and worked as a Picture Editor/Visualizer/Photographer of "

" during its formative years. From 1982 to 1991, he worked on special issues and designs, contributing picture essays on social, political, and cultural themes. Rai has specialised in extensive coverage of India. He has produced more than 18 books, including Raghu Rai's Delhi, The Sikhs, Calcutta, Khajuraho, Taj Mahal, Tibet in Exile, India, and Mother Teresa. His photo essays have appeared in many magazines and newspapers including ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...

'', ''

Life Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for Cell growth, growth, reaction to Stimu ...

'', '' GEO'', ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', '' Sunday Times'', ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely ...

'', ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...

'', and the ''

New Yorker New Yorker or ''variant'' primarily refers to: * A resident of the State of New York ** Demographics of New York (state) * A resident of New York City ** List of people from New York City * ''The New Yorker'', a magazine founded in 1925 * '' The ...

''. For Greenpeace, he has completed an in-depth documentary project on the chemical disaster at Bhopal in 1984, which he covered as a journalist with ''India Today'' in 1984, and on its ongoing effects on the lives of gas victims. This work resulted in a book, ''Exposure: A Corporate Crime'' and three exhibitions that toured Europe, America, India and southeast Asia after 2004, the 20th anniversary of the disaster. Rai wanted the exhibition to support the many survivors through creating greater awareness, both about the tragedy, and about the victims – many who are still uncompensated – who continue to live in the contaminated environment around Bhopal. In 2003, while on an assignment for Geo Magazine in Bombay City, he switched to using a digital Nikon D100 camera "and from that moment to today, I haven't been able to go back to using film." He has served three times on the jury of the World Press Photo and twice on the jury of UNESCO's International Photo Contest. In 2017, Avani Rai, his daughter followed her father on one of his trips to Kashmir to get an insight into his life and know him better. She documented this journey and released a documentary on it called ''Raghu Rai: An Unframed Portrait''. It depicts a historical narrative through Raghu Rai's photographs through time, as he tells some of his unique experiences that not only affected him deeply but also important landmarks in the young yet crucial history of India. It was executive produced by Anurag Kashyap.

Awards

* Padmashree in 1972 for work on Bangladesh War * Photographer of the Year from USA (1992) *Academie des Beaux Arts Photography Award - William Klein 2019 *Lifetime Achievement Award by the information and broadcasting (I&B) ministry 2017

Exhibitions

*1997 Retrospective – National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi, India. *2002 Raghu Rai's India – a Retrospective, Photofusion, London *2002 Volkart Foundation, Winterthur, Switzerland *2003 Bhopal – Sala Consiliare, Venice, Italy; Photographic Gallery, Helsinki, Finland *2003 Exposure: Portrait of a Corporate Crime – University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA *2004 Exposure – Drik Gallery, Dhaka, Bangladesh; Leica Gallery, Prague, Czech Republic *2005 Bhopal 1984–2004 – Melkweg Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands *2005 India – Musei Capitolini Centrale Montemartini, Rome, Italy *2007

Rencontres d'Arles The Rencontres d’Arles (formerly called ''Rencontres internationales de la photographie d’Arles'') is an annual summer photography festival founded in 1970 by the Arles photographer Lucien Clergue, the writer Michel Tournier and the historia ...

festival, France *2012 My India – FotoFreo, Australia * 2013 Trees (Black and white), New Delhi *2014 In Light of India: Photography by Raghu Rai, Hong Kong International Photo Festival, Hong Kong *2015 Trees, Art Alive Art Gallery, Delhi *''2016, The Greatest Photographs of Raghu Rai,'' Ojas Art, New Delhi

Collections

* Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris

Books

*1974 ''A Day in the life of Indira Gandhi'', Nachiketa Publications, India *1983 ''Delhi: A Portrait'', Delhi Tourist Development Corporation/Oxford University Press, India/UK *1984 ''The Sikhs'', Lustre Press, India *1985 ''Indira Gandhi'' (with

Pupul Jayakar Pupul Jayakar (née Mehta; 11 September 1915 – 29 March 1997) was an Indian cultural activist and writer, best known for her work on the revival of traditional and village arts, handlooms, and handicrafts in post-independence India. Accor ...

), Lustre Press, India *1986/87 ''Taj Mahal'', Times Editions, Singapore; Robert Laffont, France; Rizzoli Publications, USA *1988 ''Dreams of India'', Time Books International, Singapore; (L'Inde), Arthaud, France *1989 ''

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

'', Time Books International, India *1990 ''

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders ...

and

Agra Agra (, ) is a city on the banks of the Yamuna river in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, about south-east of the national capital New Delhi and 330 km west of the state capital Lucknow. With a population of roughly 1.6 million, Agra i ...

'' (with Lai Kwok Kin and Nitin Rai), Hunter Publications, Inc., USA *1990/91 ''Tibet in Esilio'', Mondadori, Italy; (Tibet in Exile), Chronicle Books, USA *1991 '' Khajuraho'', Time Books International, India *1994 ''Raghu Rai's Delhi'', Indus/Harper Collins, India *1996/01 ''Dreams of India'', Times Editions, Singapore/Greenwich, UK *1996 ''Faith and Compassion: The Life and Work or Mother Teresa'', Element Books, USA. *1997 ''My Land and Its People'', Vadehra Gallery, India *1998 ''Man, Metal and Steel'', Steel Authority of India, Ltd., India *2000 ''Raghu Rai... in his Own Words'', Roli Books, India *2000 ''

Lakshadweep Lakshadweep (), also known as Laccadives (), is a union territory of India. It is an archipelago of 36 islands in the Arabian sea, located off the Malabar Coast. The name ''Lakshadweep'' means "one lakh islands" in Sanskrit, though the Lac ...

'', UT of Lakshadweep, India *2001 ''Raghu Rai's India – A Retrospective'', Asahi Shimbun, Japan *2002 ''

Bhopal Gas Tragedy The Bhopal disaster, also referred to as the Bhopal gas tragedy, was a chemical accident on the night of 2–3 December 1984 at the Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) pesticide plant in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India. Considered the world's w ...

(with Suroopa Mukherjee)'', Tulika Publishers, India *2003/04 ''Saint Mother: A Life Dedicated'', Timeless Books, India;Mère Teresa), La Martinière, France *2004 ''Exposure: Portrait Of A Corporate Crime'', Greenpeace, Netherlands *2004 '' Indira Gandhi: A Living Legacy'', Timeless Books, India *2005 ''Romance of India'', Timeless Books, India *2005 ''

Mother Teresa Mary Teresa Bojaxhiu, MC (; 26 August 1910 – 5 September 1997), better known as Mother Teresa ( sq, Nënë Tereza), was an Indian-Albanian Catholic nun who, in 1950, founded the Missionaries of Charity. Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu () was ...

: A Life of Dedication'', Harry N. Abrams, USA. *2008 ''Raghu Rai's India: Reflections in Colour'', Haus Books. *2010 ''India's Great Masters: A Photographic Journey into the Heart of Classical Music'' * 2011 ''The Indians: Portraits From My Album'', Penguin Books. . * 2013 ''Bangladesh: The Price of Freedom'', Niyogi Books. * 2013 ''Trees'', PHOTOINK, India *2014 ''The Tale of Two: An Outgoing and an Incoming Prime Minister'' *2014 ''

Vijayanagara Vijayanagara () was the capital city of the historic Vijayanagara Empire. Located on the banks of the Tungabhadra River, it spread over a large area and included the modern era Group of Monuments at Hampi site in Vijayanagara district, Bell ...

Empire: Ruins to Resurrection'', Niyogi Books.

References

External links

Raghu Rai
at

Rai's feature about Mumbai on MagnumInvisible Interview: Raghu Rai, India
Accompanying photo essay
The Magical Streets of Raghu's India
at Invisible Photographer Asia
Raghu Rai: Interview
at ''The Guardian'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Rai, Raghu Indian photojournalists 1942 births Living people Magnum photographers Street photographers 20th-century Indian photographers Recipients of the Padma Shri in arts Indian portrait photographers Indian male journalists Punjabi people People from Jhang District 20th-century Indian journalists 21st-century Indian photographers Pakistani photojournalists