Raghu Rai, a renowned Indian photographer, passed away on Sunday, according to his family. He was eighty-three.
Born in a village in Pakistani Punjab prior to the Indian subcontinent’s split, Rai, a construction engineer by training, went on to become a renowned photographer who captured the intricate social and political life of India.
Among his most well-known writings are accounts of Bangladesh’s 1971 independence war and India’s biggest industrial catastrophe, a gas leak in Bhopal in 1984 that killed an estimated 25,000 people.
For his outstanding work, Rai was awarded the first Academie des Beaux-Arts Photography Award and the Padma Shri, one of India’s highest civilian honors, in 1972.
“To the world, he was an incomparable master of photography, the visionary who captured the pulsating heart and soul of India,” lawmaker Shashi Tharoor said in a tribute.
“Your vision will forever be the lens through which India is seen.”
In a statement, the photographer’s family revealed his passing and honored “our beloved.”
Rai published dozens of photo-books, including one on the famous Taj Mahal, a monument to love, and is well-known for his photographs of India’s political and social elite as well as for capturing the country’s culture and masses with equal speed.
Rai’s personal photographs of Mother Teresa are very noteworthy.
Henri Cartier-Bresson, who is renowned throughout the world for his iconic candid photography, nominated Rai to the esteemed New York-based collaboration Magnum Photo.
Rai later moved to photojournalism, working with some of the nation’s best-known media houses of his time through the 1960s and 70s, before going solo in his quest to depict his vast country’s complexity.
Rai’s work spans shooting on film and digital formats, both black and white and colour.
Rai worked all his life in India, and once said: “I can never be true to my experiences without a camera.”
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