Chandigarh: It is a “magical” journey that he embarked upon more than 40 years ago when he took up photography. But even today the enchantment lives on for illustrious photographer Raghu Rai. Ask him what he considers as his favourite subject to shoot and he does not even have to think before answering. “Every moment of life is special. When you connect, every object, every subject becomes important,” he states.
Rai was in the city yesterday to be part of his friend and fellow-photographer Diwan Manna’s joint exhibition with a French photographer Michel Dieudonne.
However, it is the growing commercialism in photography that he spent many moments regretting. “Photography is growing in the country gradually, but it is largely market-driven. Photographs no longer occupy pride of place because photo-journalism is going the infotainment way. This is a sad understanding of journalism.”
The purpose of newspapers and magazines is to inspire new experiences and new vision and not just feed the appetite for entertainment. And Rai speaks from a lifetime spent in news-journalism. “Everyone is free to do anything they want with the medium, but in photo-journalism you cannot alter truth. That is against the norms,” he insists.
Pictures tell stories that words can alter. While history can be written and rewritten, photo-history cannot and this he says “will be the final evidence of how society lived”.
The passion is tangible and his reverence to his craft stirring. While words for this living legend are like the brickwork of a building, pictures are the windows opening up the world. “When photographers lose this magic, they lose the power to do change things around them,” he says.
However, there are no lines within photography for him. The demarcation between photo-journalism and art is thin. “If a historical moment is captured on the lens, it becomes art,” he smiles.
This is because photographs can transport to times lost, moments hidden and eras gone by like no other medium can. “It is unfortunate that today photographs die a daily death in newspapers, weekly death in magazines. The ability for them to survive time is the magic and the challenge.”
His mantra to capture that magical moment is simple. “What you receive is what you aim for. If you thirst for something greater, nature gives it to you. But it does not come easy, nothing is easy,” he avers.
His own strength comes from a divine energy, which he believes guides everyone. “You just have to have the ability to see things in totality. Connectivity is one thing but you have to meditate on things to bring out their meaning. Our granths like the Ramayana made divine power visual. We can do it too, but this fast-food generation does not have the time, the inclination and the patience,” he says.
At 65 years, he continues to be inspired “by life and the magic of nature and everything” for he truly believes he is an “eternal witness” to time around him.
He has several books coming out, one on India, on Calcutta, on Delhi, on classical musicians and one on portraits.
Source: TNS