Raghu Rai is an important figure for Indian journalism—it is no small matter to have dominated the scene for 50 years. From the ’70s to the ’90s, from Mrs Indira Gandhi’s time to the new millennium, he documented the history, achievements, the ups and downs, and the horrors of the country with his camera.
On another level, he is known for the books he has done, especially the ones on Mrs Gandhi, Mother Teresa and Punjab. To many people he is known for being a bookmaker, beyond his work in The Statesman and India Today.
We had a deep affection for each other but it was a love-hate relationship as well, being professional rivals and working as we were with different magazines or agencies—he with Time and Magnum and me with Gamma and Newsweek. Sometimes, we even travelled to the same spot in the same car which you had to do due to lack of resources. But there was a competitive edge, we both had stories to get out and get it out first. It was part of the game.
But much as people would like to create a controversy over our pictures, the truth is, there will always be similar images at a given point of time when two photographers are at a certain spot, at a certain time, shooting the same situation. We took the photo of the same child that became the iconic image for Bhopal.
He shot it in black and white, I shot it in colour. Raghu was a well known photographer. In this case, he was able to mobilise the image—it’s not really about his photo versus mine—but unfortunately in the case of Bhopal, we all failed.
The 1972 ‘Napalm girl’ photo’s controversy also is an important case study. It was crucial in shaping public opinion about the Vietnam war but now faces an attribution controversy. Similarly the Tiananmen Square photo is known to have seven versions but the world knows only the photo of the man facing the tank with his hand raised. Controversies can be cooked post-image. Bhopal was just one of the pearls in Raghu’s quite a long necklace of accomplishments.
(As told to Paramita Ghosh)