Renowned photographer Raghu Rai passes away at 83

Raghu Rai, one of India’s best-known photographers whose lens captured the country in its many shades, died at a private hospital in the early hours of Sunday. He was 83.

“Dad was diagnosed with prostate cancer two years ago but was cured. Then it spread to the stomach, which was also treated. Recently, the cancer spread to his brain, and there were age-related issues too,” Nitin Rai said. 

He is survived by his wife Gurmeet, son Nitin, and daughters Lagan, Avani and Purvai. The last rites will be held at Lodhi Crematorium at 4 pm on Sunday.

Born on December 18, 1942, in Jhang (now in Pakistan), Rai trained as a civil engineer and took up photography at the age of 23. He joined The Statesman as its chief photographer in 1966.

From then on, his six-decade-long career became a visual record of India’s socio-political landscape.

A protégé of Henri Cartier-Bresson, Rai captured some of the most defining moments in modern Indian history, including the Bangladesh refugee crisis and the Bhopal gas tragedy.

His portraits of figures such as Indira Gandhi, Dalai Lama, Mother Teresa, Satyajit Ray, Hariprasad Chaurasia and Bismillah Khan offered rare insight into their lives.

Beyond headline events, Rai’s work sensitively captured everyday life, often transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary, especially through his evocative black-and-white images.

During his career, he worked with leading Indian magazines such as Sunday and India Today. His photo essays were published internationally in Time, Life, The New York Times, The Independent and The New Yorker.

He served three times on the jury of World Press Photo and twice on the jury of UNESCO’s International Photo Contest. He was nominated to join Magnum Photos by Cartier-Bresson in 1977.

Rai received the Padma Shri in 1972 for his coverage of the Bangladesh war and its aftermath, along with several national and international honours.

He was also named Photographer of the Year in the United States for his photo essay “Human Management of Wildlife in India”, published in National Geographic.

The French government conferred him with the Officier des Arts et des Lettres in 2009.

Rai authored several books, including “Raghu Rai’s India: Reflections in Colour and Reflections in Black and White” and “Exposure: Portrait of a Corporate Crime”.

According to the Raghu Rai Foundation, established in 2010 and housing over 50,000 of his images, he was working on his 57th book at the time of his death.
(With PTI inputs)