Today, Raghu Rai is one of the best known photographers in India, but his career started quite by accident. While working as a civil engineer, he took some photographs using his brother's camera. One found its way into the pages of The Times , London. It was a picture of a baby donkey standing against a fading sunset. “That's when my career started,” he says. “I knew I wanted to be a photographer.”
Standing amid his latest exhibition — a collaboration with his son, Nitin Rai, who is also an acclaimed photographer — Raghu Rai feels that a lot has changed about photography since he entered the profession.
“When I started, we did have good, fast cameras. We didn't have to work with the box cameras that were so difficult to handle. But now, there is no end to technology.”
Interesting concept
The Singh and Thapar Projects in association with the Dhoomimal Gallery launched the concept of Father and Son exhibitions to bring to the forefront and recognise talented father and son duos. Raghu and Nitin Rai's exhibition is the second chapter in a series of exhibitions. “It is a very interesting concept,” says Raghu Rai. “I'm grateful to be a part of it, and it is indeed a pleasure to work with Nitin. We've chosen some of the photographs that give the best idea of the very nature of our work.”
Throughout his career, the prime focus of Raghu Rai's works has been the passion and energy he puts into street photography. This exhibition, too, has some very striking scenes from the crowded streets of Kolkata and Delhi. “The idea is to let the image speak for itself, not explain it and try to categorise it as having one particular meaning. The idea is to document the now, the present. You can do it by taking pictures of famous people, but you can also capture ordinary lives of ordinary people and see the soul of the country that way.”
Rai's street scenes are criss-crossed with energy and movement. Though frozen in time, the people, cows, horses, trolleys, rickshaws and buses in his pictures are always moving, always changing. They become photographs that have so much going on, you can come back to them again and again, and find something new each time. They are photographs one could only make in India.
Visual experience
The opening of Fathers and Sons II also saw Raghu Rai give a talk on “Un-titling the Image”, addressing a large crowd of fans and admirers. “Titling the image is boxing it, describing in detail till it becomes difficult to let it have its own meaning. The relationship between a photograph and its viewer is personal, one that is a purely visual experience. To explain the photograph in words is to take away from that experience.”
“My greatest inspiration has been my father,” says Nitin Rai, whose photographs tell the story of his talent. Raghu Rai's son has certainly made a place of his own in the photography scene of India. Whether it is a soft, muted picture taken from inside a car on a rainy Mumbai evening or the bright, effervescent one of Krishna playing Holi with flowers in Vrindavan, Nitin Rai's photographs leave an impression.
“This is not even 10 per cent of my work, but I've chosen pieces that will best represent my work,” he says, pointing at a particularly striking picture of a group of laughing ascetics. “Like that one, it is nothing really, just a picture of a few disciples standing around after a bath, getting ready for the prayers. But someone has just cracked a joke, and they've all burst out laughing. It's a moment worth capturing. It's natural, simple, but it's also special.”
“It is not necessary to take pictures of big moments and famous faces. You can find millions of precious moments worth capturing. Those are the moments that define life, and those are the ones I try to capture; whatever makes an impression on me.”
