00:00India's most celebrated photojournalist, Raghu Rai, passed away on Sunday.
00:04Rai worked his magic across several platforms, including memorably for India Today magazine for many years,
00:11with some really path-breaking work, including his coverage of the Bhopal gas tragedy and the Indira years.
00:18I spoke with the photo editor of India Today, Bandeep Singh, to recall just why Raghu Rai was so iconic.
00:27Bandeep, great to see you in the India Today photo studio.
00:32What does or what did Raghu Rai mean for an entire generation or several generations of photojournalists like you?
00:41See, Raghu Rai, Rajdeep, was like this overarching Dronacharya kind of a figure.
00:47A whole generation of photographers, in fact, not just one generation,
00:51a couple of generation of photographers like Eklaviyas, even me included.
00:56You know, like Eklaviyas, we followed his work.
00:58We kept his image and matched our efforts to those images.
01:01You know, we honed our skills keeping those images in front of us.
01:04So he was an inspirational figure for those who wanted to sort of marry photography to news or to journalism
01:12in a way.
01:13He was what we all wanted to become in terms of the power of the imagery that we saw.
01:22I mean, there were photographers before him.
01:24But the emotive appeal of a Raghu Rai picture, how it punched you in the solar plexus,
01:29that was completely an experience that you could get only through a Raghu Rai image.
01:34Some of his best years, Bandheep, were when he was at India Today,
01:39when the magazine in the late 70s, early 80s was making waves.
01:43Let's pick five pictures or three to five, as many as you want,
01:47within the time that we have, that in your view define exactly what you said.
01:52Pictures that would tell more than a thousand words could.
01:56You know, none, I mean, there are innumerable pictures of Raghu's work that one can see.
02:02And, you know, I mean, what he did was he iconized situations.
02:07And as a photojournalist, his excellence was to take a particular image
02:14and make it symbolic and metaphorical for the entire news event that he was covering.
02:21I mean, one of my favorite images, which is etched in public memory,
02:25is this image of this child being buried, one of the Bhopal gas victims.
02:30You know, this is an iconic Raghu Rai image.
02:321984, December.
02:331984, December.
02:35But what makes this image special, Rajdeep,
02:37the three other photographers got the same frame, exactly the same frame.
02:41Two photographers along with Raghu.
02:43Now, it's only in the Raghu's image, you know, the way the hand is touching the face,
02:49there is, in spite of the drama of the child and his, you know, being half-buried,
02:54and the power and the sheer agony of this image, the sorrow in this image, you know,
02:59with the glassed eyes.
03:00But it is the touch of the hand that is establishing the sorrow.
03:03It is bringing out the sorrow.
03:05It is actually just like you squeeze out the rasa from a particular experience.
03:13It is happening over here in this image.
03:15That, this is a quality that was, you know, in Raghu's, every work that he did,
03:21you know, there was an element in a larger space that he would photograph.
03:26There would be some element that would hook onto you because of its gentle quality.
03:30It's a remarkable image that he captured.
03:33It really captured the agony and tragedy of Bhopal.
03:40One of the, you know, things, the legendary things that Raghu Rai was known for is
03:45what is his photo features in India Today magazine.
03:48And these were spaces that he fought for, you know, with all the editors.
03:53His battles with the editorial meetings were legendary.
03:55Like you fight for them today.
03:57No, but we all are nothing compared to what Raghu did.
04:02And what he did was, in his words, the words in a story were like a brickwork.
04:13And images to him were like windows that open up those bricks and allow fresh air
04:19and fresh air of experience and witnessing to come through the image.
04:22And so he would always fight for space and display for his photo features.
04:28One of the legendary photo features he did in India Today was of Bismillah Khan.
04:33You know, this was part of his classical musician series that he did.
04:39And he photographed all the doyans of Indian classical music.
04:43This particular photo feature...
04:45And this is presumably in Varanasi.
04:46In Varanasi.
04:47And it follows Bismillah Khan during the course of his day, you know, at his home.
04:53And, you know, now, the quality of Raghu Rai imagery is evident over here.
04:58If you see, the half-turned head towards the heavens is exactly the same way
05:06how a musician plays or performs in a musical concert.
05:11This is his way of seeking amad in classical music, in which when you seek inspiration, divine inspiration,
05:19you will see again this half-turned head towards the space.
05:22And the use of negative space to allow that head to have its say
05:27and to allow the head to receive what it is receiving.
05:31Wow, beautiful.
05:32Now, this is what Raghu Rai fought for.
05:34This kind of layouts, this kind of use of empty space.
05:38In 1980s, you know, this was when the whole...
05:44But this was magazine journalism at its peak.
05:47But this was when words were, you know, held to be at the forefront and the picture was...
05:53Sure, so he changed the sort of rules of the game in a way
05:55by making the picture far more important at times than the narrative.
05:59Your third picture that you are going to choose for us.
06:01No, before I choose this third image, Rajdeep,
06:06I want to talk a little about what makes Raghu so special in the context of photography.
06:13See, Raghu had what you call...
06:17He had a kinship with the India experience.
06:20You know, the whole idea...
06:21He had a connect to the core idea of, you know, the Indian...
06:25The emotional state of being an Indian, the spiritual experience of being an Indian,
06:31and the whole idea of the cultural space of being an Indian.
06:34And these experiences were part of his vision, you know, photographic process.
06:40In fact, they were like a subtle filter over all his images.
06:44Now, every image of Raghu that you see,
06:47you will see this kinship with the idea of India coming into that image.
06:51And that made his work very special.
06:54Now, that gave the images an emotive touch,
06:57which a lot of other photographers lack.
07:01Let me give you a small example.
07:04Raghu Rai photographed workers
07:06and a legendary photographer,
07:07Sebastu of Salgado photographed workers.
07:10But Salgado's workers always gave the impression of being in a state of suffering
07:16that came from his biblical background.
07:19Whereas Raghu's workers always,
07:22even in the grim, gritty, grimy situations they are working,
07:26you always get a sense of grace in Raghu's workers.
07:29The body will arch in a curve,
07:31the hands would extend in a mudra-like form.
07:34They would be always...
07:36That empathy for the Indian experience.
07:39Yes.
07:39The lived Indian experience.
07:42You could catch that full conversation, of course,
07:45on India Today Digital,
07:47the iconic Raghu Rai.
07:48On that note,
07:50thanks for watching.
07:51Stay well, stay safe.
07:52Good night.
07:52Shubhra 3.
07:53Jai Hind.
07:54Namaskar.
07:55It was the news without the noise.
07:57Bye for now.
Comments