Capturing Vishnu

Having just released a book on Tirupathi, photographer Raghu Rai says his God exists only in his camera

You have to have a cool eye and a warm heart. You have to have silence inside you,” offers Raghu Rai in An Unframed Portrait, a film made by his daughter, Avani. It’s excellent advice for photographers and visual artists from one of the stalwarts of Indian photography. But as it turns out, it’s also apt advice for those considering Rai’s oeuvre, which, vast as it is, deserves a cool eye and a little inner quiet.

Rai has photographed the country for over 50 years since he landed his first job as a professional photographer in 1965 covering urgent news stories for The Statesman. By the time he joined India Today in 1982, Rai was already a member of the prestigious Magnum Photos. In 1977, the legendary Henri Cartier-Bresson had himself nominated Rai, who then put India on the world stage.

His photographs, unlike what the West was accustomed to, were multi-layered, seemingly chaotic. He saw as only an Indian can. “Whether it is a topic of human interest, a social issue, or simply the madness of life, I want to get into it,” he says. After a decade with India Today, Rai left to photograph for himself.