Raghu Rai on what keeps him connected to photography: Ever changing life & nature

New Delhi, Oct 7: At 80, Raghu Rai says he feels connected to life and nature through photography, a profession he picked up over five decades ago after leaving his “boring” job as a civil engineer.
For Rai, the best thing about capturing moments on camera is coming face-to-face with questions about life and its ever changing nature. “I’m more than 80 and I’m still alive and there. I feel connected and I’m blissfully happy… It’s been more than 55 years but the most powerful part about photography is — life and nature is ever changing and ever challenging and that shakes you up,” the veteran photographer told PTI in a virtual interview.
It was in the early 1960s when Rai said he left his “boring 9 to 5 job” and casually accompanied a photographer friend on an assignment. The ace photographer said it was a moment of “revelation” when he looked through the viewfinder for the first time. “When I put on a camera and looked through the viewfinder, suddenly all the energy and concentration came together. This was something that had happened to me for the first time. I could concentrate and penetrate through the world around me. For me, it was a great revelation. That’s why I couldn’t move to anything else,” he recalled. Rai started his photojournalism career as the chief photographer of national daily The Statesman and later worked as the picture editor of weekly news magazine Sunday. He also worked as a photo editor and visualiser of the fortnightly magazine India Today. (PTI)