Raghu Rai began learning the craft in 1962, and by 1965 he had joined The Statesman newspaper in New Delhi as its chief photographer.
From The Statesman to Magnum: How Raghu Rai Rose to Global Prominence
The trajectory that followed was remarkable by any standard. In 1971, Raghu Rai exhibited his work in Paris, where it caught the attention of the French master Henri Cartier-Bresson — arguably the most influential photographer of the twentieth century.
Cartier-Bresson was so struck by what he saw that he personally nominated Rai to join Magnum Photos in 1977, making him one of the agency's rare Indian members and cementing his place in the global canon.
By that point, Rai had already left The Statesman — departing in 1976 to become picture editor of Sunday, a weekly news magazine published from Calcutta.
In 1980, he moved again, this time to India Today, where from 1982 to 1991 he contributed what many consider the definitive picture essays of that era.
He had five-six long decades of exceptional images and the stories behind them.
He was arguably; India’s greatest photographer.
His photographs of war, faith, monuments like the Taj Mahal, ordinary Indians, leaders, PM Indira Gandhi, saints and charlatans, deserts and much else besides in black and white, and in colour, are imprinted on our memory.
Timeless, often unsettling, and always unforgettable, his pictures perhaps 'changed' the way people and leaders saw the world and its dynamism.
Raghu Rai has published almost 40 books of photographs.
Born: 1942, Jhang, now in Pakistan; Raghu breathed his last on April 26, 2026
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