Raghu Rai, one of India’s most famous photographers, died in a private hospital in Delhi on Sunday. He was 83 years old. His son, photographer Nitin Rai, said he had been battling cancer for the past two years.
“My father was diagnosed with prostate cancer two years ago but was cured. Then the cancer spread to the stomach, which was also cured. Recently the cancer spread to his brain, and then there were age-related issues as well,” he told news agency PTI.
Who is Raghu Rai?
Raghu Rai was born in 1942 in Jhang, Punjab, then in British India (now in Pakistan). He began learning photography in 1962 from his older brother, photographer S. Paul.
Ray began his career in the mid-1960s and joined Statesman In New Delhi in 1965 as a photographer. During this period, he covered a range of national events, and in 1968, he visited Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s ashram when the British band The Beatles were there.
In 1976 he left Statesman I moved to the weekly magazine Sunday As a photo editor. In 1977 he was nominated to join Magnum Photos by French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson.
Leave Sunday In 1980 he later joined India TodayWhere he worked as a photo editor and photographer. Ray documented the 1984 Bhopal gas disaster and later developed a long-term project on its impact. He wrote the book Exposure: Corporate crime attic.
During his career, he published more than 18 books on the people, culture and cities of India, including India Raghu Rai: Reflections on Color and Reflections in black and white. His work has appeared in major international publications such as time, life, New York Times, Newsweek and The New Yorker.
Ray was awarded the Padma Shri in 1972 for his coverage of the Bangladesh War.
