Some people record history. Others help a nation see itself. Raghu Rai belonged firmly to the second kind. The celebrated photojournalist, whose images chronicled India’s many moods and moments, has died at the age of 83. He had been receiving treatment at a private hospital.
His son, photographer Nitin Rai, said his father had been dealing with cancer along with age-related health complications.
"Dad was diagnosed with prostate cancer two years ago, but he was cured. Then it spread to the stomach, that too was cured. Recently, the cancer spread to his brain and then there were age-related issues too," Nitin Rai was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
Rai is survived by his wife Gurmeet, son Nitin, and daughters Lagan, Avani and Purvai.
Raghu Rai was widely regarded as one of India’s most influential photographers. Over the decades, his camera documented the country in all its contrasts, ordinary lives, political change, social shifts and defining national moments.
He also had a memorable and deeply influential association with India Today Magazine during the 1980s, where his visual storytelling left a lasting mark.
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Rai took up photography in 1965 at the age of 23. Just a year later, he joined The Statesman newspaper as chief photographer and remained there for nearly a decade.
He later moved on to work as Picture Editor with a weekly news magazine published in Kolkata, continuing to sharpen a style that would become instantly recognisable.
In 1971, legendary photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson noticed Rai’s work and nominated him to Magnum Photos, one of the world’s most respected photographic cooperatives.
That recognition placed Rai among the most admired image-makers of his generation.
