The Divine Lens: A Biography of Raghu Rai
Through intimate details and dialogues, Rachna Singh’s Raghu Rai: Waiting for the Divine invites readers into the expansive vision of the man often hailed as the father of Indian photography.
There are many philosophical statements captured by Rachna Singh which give readers clues as to what makes the photography of Raghu Rai so unique. At the core lies the word ‘instinct’, which Rai uses recurrently to describe the present moment—the ‘here and now’ that goes beyond the mind—and its focus on thinking and imagination. Singh brings out the heart of the process in Rai’s words: “An instinctive response is free from the mind, from ideas, from all those trappings of the mind. Your instinct lives beyond your head. If you are photographing the world by your instinct, then no influence stands in your way. Photography is the best form of executing this aspect. If you are here and connected with what is happening here, then all the information has no relevance. Your eyes are connected to your heart and to the here.”
Raghu Rai: Waiting for the Divine (Hawakal Publishers, 2025) is Singh’s latest book, a biography of the visionary man often hailed as the father of Indian photography. The book’s blurb describes the book as “a candid korero brimming with sincerity, wisdom and humanity… the narrative—alive with vibrant anecdotes and profound insights—offers an intimate portrait of the master craftsman and invites readers on a journey of learning and inspiration.” This is certainly true, for the narrative is replete with a personal history of engaging anecdotes and musings interwoven with some of Rai’s iconic photos, suffusing the book with energy and humanity. It invites readers through intimate and candid dialogues into a life built on an expansive vision by absorbing wide-ranging influences leading to a craftsmanship of a rare range of photographs, some current and some archival, some climactic and some of the everyday.
Singh is founding editor of The Wise Owl, a literary and art magazine she started in November 2021. In a remarkably short time, she has made this journal a global community of poets, writers, artists and readers. A former bureaucrat (Principal Commissioner, Income Tax) with a doctorate in English Literature, she has a versatile body of work spanning five books through which she has explored different subjects, from poetic musings and inspiring tales of extraordinary women to the complexities of Bitcoin.
Singh caught nuances of the present moment when she watched the documentary Raghu Rai: An Unframed Portrait (2017), directed by the subject’s daughter, Avani Rai. Pointing to a landscape with a lone tree bent over, buffeted by the breeze with a cloud passing over it, the elder Rai told Avani to wait till the cloud and the tree were connected in a cosmic dance, and then click that moment. Through Singh’s writing, the reader is able to catch glimpses of an interiority, which brings alive all the nuances, energies, textures, and emotions of the moment: a black and white photo of Hari Prasad Chaurasia perched on a rock playing the flute as the silver sea and dark clouds move in rhythm to the music; Mother Teresa’s deeply lined face caught in the depths of prayer and submission; the vibrant bustle of Chawri Bazar in the time of horse carriages, cycle rickshaws and loaded pushcarts; a man in tatters pulling down family planning posters from a wall, Indira Gandhi’s smiling face discarded on a heap presaging her forthcoming election defeat; the undulating folds of the Dalai Lama’s shawl along his arm mirroring the undulating Dhauladhar ranges, as dark clouds descend in an enormous backdrop.
Rai spent more than 55 years as a journalist. In his foreword, he writes that everything in the world matters, from a momentous event to a mundane occurrence, connectedness with the smallest detail of nature or life creating a new awareness in him—moments of discernment uniting him with the divine. “My craft led me towards a meditative path which has been profoundly fulfilling. I believe the most creative work emerges when we are empty of preconceptions—when our pure, unsullied selves receive signals from the divine or nature.”
At the heart of Singh’s research lie some intense conversations, when Rai sums up what for him is the greatest art: art which restores silence within one. When Singh probes, he answers, “When you connect with every inch of space, every energy, you are in a very silent zone where the self becomes the sensor of your soul, receiving and ticking with the energy of the place. A moment of intensity comes and you experience magic. Your heart misses a beat. And the situation acquires your heartbeat and the moment has all the power of this heartbeat. When you connect with the divine, new spaces, new experiences open up.”
Perhaps it is this silent speech that Singh, felt as she went through “A Thousand Lives”, an exhibition held at the Kiran Nadar Museum in New Delhi in February 2024 which showcased a selection of Raghu Rai’s analogue works from the period 1965 to 2005. These included his image of Mother Teresa, walking up the stairs of the mission with the image of Jesus Christ in the background, invoking the feeling she has paused to look at the observer, but will continue to ascend the stairs; the image of men in Rajasthani attire shielding their eyes against sand swirling capriciously in the breeze, as if they would dodge forever the fine grains of sand; and autumn leaves on the pathways of Connaught Place creating the feeling of a rustle underfoot.
Raghu Rai: Waiting for the Divine is filled with inspirations: Rai’s inspiration from nature, people, and situations, and Singh’s inspiration from her subject. The reader, caught in this artistic web, is bound to be inspired, too.
With probing skills and depth, Singh has captured vignettes of Rai’s life in a well-defined biography that spans a life of multifarious influences and learnings. The book spans key events like Rai’s childhood, and the trauma of moving as refugees from Jhang in Pakistan through various refugee camps in India, his years of struggle before his profession charted itself out, his mentors in photography, his early glimmerings of success, his years as a photojournalist in various leading newspapers and magazines, the challenges faced and convictions built, his meetings with well-known personalities such as Mother Teresa and the Dalai Lama and their influence on him, his deep love and learnings from his mother, Guruji and from music and their resonances in his work, his work and observations of celebrities such as Indira Gandhi, M. F. Husain, Satyajit Ray, Shabana Azmi, Mallikarjun Mansur, Heri Cartier-Bresson, Amrita Pritam and others that centred him between the ordinary and the known, the prestigious awards won including the highest—as the first laureate photographer of the French Academie Beaux-Arts, his family life: its loves and joys and estrangements, and his continued passion for his work on a road seemingly without end.
The reader learns through Singh’s research and dialogues with Rai what his own observations and learnings were from personalities, great and ordinary. From his mother, a simple woman serving singlehandedly a household of twelve, he learnt to serve to the best of his ability, her words reverberating through his life: Aap na mariye, teh swarag na jayeh (If we do not work dedicatedly, we will not achieve the heights of heaven). From Mother Teresa he learnt that behind firmness there can be a compassionate flexibility in the interest of deeper truths. From the Dalai Lama he learnt the blessings of joy, friendship and healing. From Guruji, trust, restoration, and how to stay anchored. From M.F. Husain, he learnt how even great artists can give generous gifts and recognition to others. From his friend and sculptor Himmat Shah he learnt the joys of an abiding friendship. From his wife Gurmeet he learnt the value of a supportive love and a partnership of mutual respect. And from his four children, he learnt to balance love with dispassion.
There are learnings from negative experiences, too. Looking back to his first marriage to celebrated journalist Usha Rai, a certain ruefulness touches his words: “Since I was the central character of my own life’s deeds and misdeeds in this ongoing theatre of daily life, each time the other person inside me took me to task, I had to own up to my share. This empowered me to navigate my steps ahead clearly.” There is the pain of estrangement from his well-loved mentor brother photographer, S. Paul. But Rai’s acute observation on negativity is a flowing stream: “Your creativity into my creativity is a multiplication in creative space and if you begin cut yourself off from each other, some part of your vision will reduce.”
As author, Singh is low-key and unobtrusive, appearing only when her memories and observations have some connection with her subject. My queries on her research revealed her vast endeavours: her conversations with Raghu Rai spanned some 18 months, including several marathon sessions lasting some eight hours each day over three consecutive days. In between, she absorbed a range of materials, including print and YouTube interviews with Rai and his personal collection of books featuring his photographs on diverse themes and subjects. She also spoke to his close friends, such as the sculptor Himmat Shah, journalist Saeed Naqvi, and more, for deeper insights into Rai the man, and Rai the legendary photographer.
It is small wonder then that Singh’s admiration for the icon runs rife through the book. Raghu Rai: Waiting for the Divine is filled with inspirations: Rai’s inspiration from nature, people, and situations, and Singh’s inspiration from her subject. The reader, caught in this artistic web, is bound to be inspired, too.
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Neera Kashyap is a writer of short fiction, poetry, essays and book reviews whose work has appeared in several international literary journals and anthologies. Her collection of short fiction is in the pipelines with Niyogi Books. A collection of poems is also scheduled for publication with Red River in 2025. Her book reviews have appeared in The Chakkar, Café Dissensus, Bangalore Review, Kitaab, RIC Journal, Different Truths, Quiver Review and Hooghly Review.You can find her on Twitter: @NeeraK7 and Instagram: @neerakashyap.
