Capturing moments in black and white

Catch an exhibition of iconic black and white photographs by one of India’s noted photographers, Raghu Rai, as a part of Tasveer’s seventh season of exhibitions.

Raghu Rai was originally trained as a civil engineer, before taking up photography at the age

of 23, in 1965. A year later, he joined the New Delhi based national weekly magazine as their chief photographer, moving on after 10 years to become the picture editor with a prestigious Kolkata based weekly. In 1977, he returned to New Delhi to become the picture editor, as well as its active photographer, for a leading national weekly. Henri Cartier-Bresson saw an exhibition of Rai’s in Paris at the Galerie Delpire in 1971, and was sufficiently impressed to nominate him to a reputed photo agency.

In the same year he was honoured by the Indian Government with the Padmashree Award-approximately India’s equivalent to a knighthood. Unlike many photographers, Raghu Rai has deliberately remained focused on the universality of Indian life and its many cultures.

This exhibition has been selected from his wide-ranging photographic oeuvre, to focus on his work in the photography of the street and other public spaces.