Raghu Rai’s India: Reflections in Colour

Raghu Rai doesn’t photograph people, places or panorama beyond India. He is centred on and at peace with his own country, not even eager to exhibit outside it. And yet, he has won international applause.  Raghu’s pictures are exceptional, mixing distance with intuitive intensity. His range of concerns, from the lives of political characters, to events and landscapes, is rare. He always finds the subtle, fragile balance where one is torn between the strength of the photograph on its own, and the emotion it implies. Looking at any of his photos, at no moment can you say, ‘This is just a photographer’s virtuosity,’ nor can you limit a picture to the mere information it imparts. There is no denying that the density and size of India provide Raghu with incredible resource. But none of his pictures offer only what is immediately obvious to the eye: the spectacular, the beautiful or the dramatic. What they hold out to the viewer are much higher levels of reading. There is something compelling about the rhythm Raghu imposes on us. We take time in front of each of his pictures. He induces us to share his own, complex emotions whether portraying Indira Gandhi or Mother Teresa, confronting the catastrophe brought about by the gas leak in Bhopal, contrasting the rich with the poor, or just the sight of a crossroad that looks like a Hollywood production. India faces all the issues that rule the world today: economy, health, development, the status of women, ecology, war, the class system, housing religion, research, building democracy…. This gives Raghu Rai a much bigger territory than if he was travelling the world, staying in each place for only a few days or a few weeks. While many photographs turned away from ‘news’ towards ‘in-depth reportage’, Raghu Rai has for a long time delved into the ruling interest in his life: the emergence of the young democracy as a panacea to all our anxieties about life in India. He is a rare example of a photographer who, while collaborating with the press market, built an independent project that came up with pieces of art. With delicacy and a generosity of view–and without imposition–he has helped the west understand a multilayered country.