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"I wish there were 10 of me"

Raghu Rai's critical eye misses nothing as he comments on the media, society and yes, photographers

PHOTO: MURALI KUMAR K.

LENSVIEW For celebrated photojournalist Raghu Rai his pictures are a mirror of his country and his people

Raghu Rai is by far the most celebrated photojournalist in the country. He worked with The Statesman (as Chief Photographer from 1966-70), Sunday (Picture Editor, 1977-80) and India Today (Picture Editor-Visualiser-Photographer, 1982-91), before "feeling a need to fly, and create a space for myself". He is ecstatic about the freedom of being on his own. "I am free now; I take the pictures I want. I take them when and where I want. Life is beautiful and Nature, enthralling and ever-changing... I wish sometimes that there were 10 of me. Just so I could capture the immense bounty that life is."

Winner of several awards and recognitions including the Padmashri (1971), Rai speaks excitedly on life and photography. "To me, my country is my whole world. My pictures are a mirror of my world, my country and my people. In India, I am myself. I can sniff around with my eyes shut and yet see and connect. In that sense I am rooted and enjoy every bit of that rootedness, since it my life source. And when I take pictures, I do so with all my love and passion. I work for that moment, that minute of passion and devotion that I capture in every frame."

"There are times when I have had to take pictures of death, devastation, sadness, cruelty. I have very seldom got emotionally involved. You have to be the chronicle, you cannot turn into the subject. You can neither run away nor distance yourself from disasters and cruel realities. When we were in Bhopal, for instance, after the gas tragedy, we photographers were all asking where the dead bodies were so that we could shoot them and get the pictures published. We were like vultures ready to pounce on a carcass... Even while taking pictures of Mother Theresa, we were like herds, jostling with each other for a better position; some of us even trampled the poor dying patients — all because, we wanted a good picture! The Mother came and when she saw the mess, she quietly left without a word. She obviously had better things to do than posing for unruly photographers."

With his strong engagement with newspapers and magazines over the years, the discussion inevitably moves towards the current status of the media. "Seriously, TV can never be a threat to print media. After all, you may see an image and appreciate its immediacy. But then it is gone in a flash. It is not the same in print. You can hold the story -image and the text-as long as you please, preserve it if you want, and retrieve when required. Is this possible with TV?"

Rai is perturbed by the new trends in print journalism where ethics and aesthetics are given the go-by in favour of glamour, gossip and sensationalism. "Everything is on sale, these days. Sab bhik gaya hai; the columns and space, and everything," he says with regret. "Who is bothered about serious content? Everyone is after show businessThey don't mind putting a half-clad B-grade actress or a half-baked intellectual on their covers or lead stories, but they don't have space for a creative artist or an artwork. It is like you're having Mother Theresa and Princess Diana at the same time... with more space allocated for Di. Isn't that terrible?"

Rai, though, makes his admiration for The Hindu amply clear. "This is one newspaper you can read without any doubt or embarrassment. Its news and views are credible and there is a genuine commitment to fact and its presentation."

"My exhibition was well covered by the media.

Sadly, I felt that they were covering me as a person, a celebrity and not really as an artist. On earlier occasions, they would allot a large space for my work, but now my own picture seems more important than the photographs I take."

ATHREYA

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