Raghu Rai’s foray into photography was rather fortuitous. A civil engineer who was on a professional break, it was during a visit to his elder brother, photographer S Paul, in Delhi in the early 1960s that Rai was introduced to the nuances of the medium. Accompanying a friend to a village in Haryana, he took what was among his first photographs: a donkey gazing straight into the camera. Impressed by the image, Paul sent it to The Times in London, where it was published, earning Rai not just prize money but more significantly also a career in photography that was to stay with him until he passed away in Delhi on Sunday. He was 83 and had been suffering from cancer.

Tenacious, observant and deeply curious, born in Jhang (Pakistan), Rai instilled life into every photograph that he took and captured the pulse of the nation. “More than a professional photographer, I became an explorer of life,” he said in an interview to The Indian Express in 2024. Though that life has now ended, the moments he recorded will remain forever in the form of his rich archive that spans from photojournalism to documentation and portraits of some of the most recognised figures from across different fields, politics to culture.

“Some artists transcend art categories and labels and are extraordinary in the way they gather and live through the breadth of their experiences. I don’t think India was explored any better or as expansively as by Raghu Rai, who was sharp and deeply incisive, and empathetic, always on the move and slept with a loaded camera next to him. Not a mere witness, the intensity with which he would seek was absolutely infectious and inspiring,” says Roobina Karode, Artistic Director and Chief Curator at Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA), who curated his 2024 exhibition Raghu Rai: A Thousand Lives at KNMA with Devika Daulet Singh.

One of India’s foremost photojournalists, the 1972 Padma Shri awardee also recorded a spectrum of the country’s history, including photographs of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale in Amritsar’s Golden Temple complex shortly before Operation Blue Star in 1984, the Bhopal Gas Tragedy, the poignant plight of the refugees during the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971 and the crackdown during the Emergency years.

In 1977, Rai became the first Indian photographer to be invited to join Magnum Photos upon nomination by legendary French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson, who had reportedly seen his photographs at an exhibition in Paris in 1971. The latter’s humanist approach echoed in Rai’s own practice, including his frames of the rhythms of Old Delhi and the serene ghats of Ganga, landscapes across terrains and the Mahakumbh.

Also testament to his inclination to introspect and archive are his several exhibitions and over 40 books, including A Day in the Life of India, Picturing Time: The Greatest Photographs of Raghu Rai, My Land and Its People, The Album: Friends and Family and Tibet in Exile. His People: His Finest Portraits brought together the little known and the well-recognised, including former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, shehnai maestro Ustad Bismillah Khan, Dalai Lama, Mother Teresa and Satyajit Ray.

Pramod Kapoor, founder and publisher of Roli Books who developed a close friendship with Rai after he published his book The Sikhs (NOT FIRST) in 1983, says, “He was a perfectionist and a genius who knew what commanded attention. Fiercely critical of his own work, he would discard several of his images and shared only the best. Photography was his life’s joy. Accompanying him on several shoots, I remember his impromptu singing, including songs of Kumar Gandharva, whom he deeply admired.”

Rajeev Lochan, artist and former director of National Gallery of Modern Art, who presented his 2008 retrospective at the institution, recalls, “Bohemian on one side, serious on the end, he held a passion for life in every respect.”

Rai’s work also inspired generations of photographers. Having closely followed his work for over 40 years, photographer Rohit Chawla says, “Raghu Rai didn’t just photograph India, he expanded its visual vocabulary. At a time when most were content recording events, he was constructing meaning within the frame layering foreground, edge, and accident into something far more enduring than reportage. What set him apart wasn’t access or subject, but intent. He could be dismissive, even impatient with mediocrity, but that came from a fierce clarity about what photography demanded. With Raghu, the image was never casual, it was earned. And in that rigour, he quietly set the benchmark for generations who followed.”

Even in his later years, Rai continued to photograph with the same devotion that marked his foray onto becoming one of the most prolific visual chroniclers of contemporary India. “Extremely curious, he was a brilliant storyteller whose zeal for photography continued till the very end,” says Karode of KNMA.