Raghu Rai, another great name in the history of Indian
photography based his career on the coverage of the native Indian land. Rai became a photographer quite by fluke, when he chased a donkey for three hours and clicked a picture in the end. India`s most celebrated photographer, Raghu Rai became a photographer in the year 1965 and joined The Statesman, a daily New Delhi publication. He became a freelance photographer in 1976 and did some extraordinary work with his camera. Later in the 1990`s he joined India Today as the director of photography and till the year 1997 he served as the jury for World Press Photo. The renowned Raghu Rai is immensely famous and acclaimed because of his extraordinary work featuring the Bhopal Gas tragedy. Raghu Rai arrived in
Bhopal hours after the gas leak to find chaos, as the dead were
being buried and cremated and the hospitals overflowing with thousands of patients. Rai realised he was witnessing a disaster of unprecedented proportions and the start of a long nightmare for the gas-exposed survivors. One of his pictures from the same went on to win the Press Photo of the year 1984. Also highly acclaimed is his work with Mother Teresa and her Missionaries of Charity. Raghu Rai had featured regularly in some of world`s leading publications including Time, Life, Paris Match, National Geographic, New York Times, Sunday Times and many more. He also won a Padamshree in the year 1071 and compelled the world`s prestigious Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris to put up a permanent exhibition of 25 of his best works. Later Rai had teamed up with another master of the writing craft author
Khushwant Singh, to bring out a coffee table book, titled, The Sikhs. The 12 inch by 12 inch, 144-page coffee table hardback is a treasure trove of rare glimpses into the Sikh community`s beliefs, rituals, traditions and culture. It showcases through pictures why the Sikhs are an assertive and extrovert people with a zest for life.
