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‘Raghu Rai didn’t just photograph India, he invented a way of seeing it’: Rohit Chawla

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Tribute (1942-2026)

Goa-based image-maker Rohit Chawla remembers how Magnum photographer Raghu Rai had little patience for the banal or the derivative, and even less inclination to disguise that impatience

Updated - April 27, 2026 02:42 pm IST

In Raghu Rai’s own words, photography “for me, is darshan... you have to make yourself available mentally, physically, spiritually to the moment.” | Photo Credit: Rohit Chawla

I came to Raghu Rai before I came to photography.

As a young, 18-year-old inconsequential boy shooting for a city magazine, more to fund a relationship than any artistic calling, photography was a means to an end, until his images began to intrude — in passing at first, then completely. They didn’t just influence what I shot, they altered what I thought a photograph could hold.

Published - April 26, 2026 05:05 pm IST

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