Taj Mahal: A Masterpiece of Mughal Arehitecture

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For Emperor Shah Jahan who loved his Queen Mumtaz very deeply, having lost her at a youthful age, Taj Mahal as a mausoleum was an offering to his most beautiful beloved. When you walk in, those few hundred metres from the main gate, there is a breathless urgency to get there. Though built three hundred and fifty years ago when you stand on the platform facing the Taj glistening with the same freshness and array of natures colours in the inlay work, it is as if it was built just yesterday.

The scale and the magnificence is so enormous when you look up and around, you stand like a spec of mankind insignificant in awe. With a digital camera in hand or at least a cellphone camera, everyone goes click click.

The ability to see the image that you have clicked right there, empowers each visitor to carry the magic home. Posing on the middle platform before you reach the mausoleum, with one hand raised to the sky, trying to catch the top of the dome is a standard shot for the visitors at the Taj. Several professional authorized photographers have albums of couples in special postures and gestures sometimes funny but most looking mesmerized just by being there.

When you are walking away, you turn back to take a last glimpse its never enough. You promise to come back– and soon. Being a masterpiece of all Mughal architecture with a romantic allure it evokes many memories and several connections one has missed or lost.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Raghu Rai

Raghu Rai started photographs in 1965.  He was Chief Photographer of The Statesman (1966-1976).  In 1977, legendary photographer Henri Cartier - Bresson nominated Rai to Magnum Photos, the world’s most prestigious photographers’ cooperative.  Thereafter, Rai was Picture Editor with Sunday (1997-1980) and Picture Editor - Visualiser – Photographer of India Today (1982-1991) where he contributed trail – blazing picture-essays on social, political and cultural themes of the decade.In 1971, he was awarded the Padmashree, one of India’s highest civilian awards.  In 1992, he received the ‘Photographer of the Year’ award in the United States for his story, ‘Human Management of wildlife in India’, published in National Geographic.  His photo-essays have appeared in many of the world’s leading magazines and newspapers.  He has been on the jury of the World Press Photo contest, thrice and on UNESCO’s International Photo Contest, twice.Raghu Rai has done extensive photo-documentation of the 1984 Bhopal Gas Tragedy and its continuing effects on the lives of the victims as a special assignment for Greenpeace International.He has 28 books to his credit including Raghu Rai’s Delhi, The Sikhs, Tibet in Exile, Indira Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Raghu Rai’s India and India’s Great Master Musicians.  His works have also been published in major books done by Magnum Photo.Rai’s photographs have been exhibited in one man shows in Bunkamura Museum, Tokyo and Museo De Capitolini, rome.  They have also been exhibited in prestigious galleries.  In 2007, a major retrospective of his work was held at Arles Festival, while in 2008, the bigger ever retrospective of a photographer in India was held at the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi and Mumbai.Raghu Rai continues to be an associate of Magnum Photos and works on personal projects and pictorials.

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Bibliographic information

Title
Taj Mahal: A Masterpiece of Mughal Arehitecture
Author
Edition
1st. ed.
Publisher
ISBN
8189497308, 9788189497309
Length
156p.,
Subjects