Raghu Rai

In 1976, he left the paper and became a freelance photographer. From 1982 until 1992, Rai was the director of photography for India Today. He is known for shooting important events in Indian modern history, including the Bangladesh refugee crisis, 1972 and the Bhopal gas tragedy, 1984. Over the years, his photo essays appeared in Time, Life, The New York Times, The Independent, and The New Yorker. He served on the jury for World Press Photo from 1990 to 1997. He was known for his books, particularly Raghu Rai's India: Reflections in Colour and Reflections in Black and White.

Rai was born in the village of Jhang, Punjab Province, British India (now in Pakistan), the youngest of four children. He was qualified as a civil engineer and took up photography at age 23.

Rai started learning photography in 1962 under his elder brother Sharampal Chowdhry (better known as S Paul), who is a photographer. In 1966, he joined The Statesman newspaper as its chief photographer. He and his colleague Saeed Naqvi visited Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's ashram in Rishikesh in the spring of 1968, when the Beatles arrived. He left The Statesman in 1976 to work as picture editor for Sunday, a weekly news magazine published in Calcutta. Impressed by an exhibit of his work in Paris in 1971, Henri Cartier-Bresson nominated Rai to join Magnum Photos in 1977. Rai left Sunday in 1980, and worked as a picture editor and photographer at India Today during its formative years. From 1982 to 1991, he worked on special issues and designs, contributing picture essays on social, political, and cultural themes. For Greenpeace, he completed an in-depth documentary project on the chemical disaster in Bhopal in 1984, which he covered as a journalist with India Today in 1984, and on its ongoing effects on the lives of gas victims. This work resulted in a book, Exposure: A Corporate Crime and three exhibitions that toured Europe, the United States, India and southeast Asia after 2004, the 20th anniversary of the disaster. Rai wanted the exhibition to support the many survivors through creating greater awareness, both about the tragedy and about the victims who continue to live in the contaminated environment around Bhopal. In 2003, while on an assignment for Geo magazine in Mumbai, he switched to using a digital camera. As he said in an interview, "And from that moment till today, I haven't been able to go back to using film." In 2017, his daughter, Avani Rai, followed her father on one of his trips to Kashmir to get an insight into his life and know him better. She released a documentary on this journey called Raghu Rai: An Unframed Portrait, executive produced by Anurag Kashyap. Rai produced more than 18 books focusing on the culture and people of India, including Raghu Rai's Delhi, The Sikhs, Calcutta, Khajuraho, Taj Mahal, Tibet in Exile, India, and Mother Teresa. His photo essays have appeared in many magazines and newspapers including Time, Life, Geo, The New York Times, The Sunday Times, Newsweek, The Independent, and The New Yorker. He served on the jury of the World Press Photo from 1990 to 1997, and on the jury of UNESCO's International Photo Contest.

Rai was first married to journalist Usha Rai, and the couple had two children, Nitin Rai and Lagan Rai. After their divorce, he married conservation architect Gurmeet Sangha Rai, with whom he had two daughters, Avani and Purvai Rai. Rai died in Delhi on 26 April 2026, at the age of 83, after battling prostate cancer for two years. He was survived by his wife, Gurmeet Rai, his son, Nitin, and daughters Lagan, Avani and Purvai.

1997 Retrospective – National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi, India. 2002 Raghu Rai's India – a Retrospective, Photofusion, London 2002 Volkart Foundation, Winterthur, Switzerland 2003 Bhopal – Sala Consiliare, Venice, Italy; Photographic Gallery, Helsinki, Finland 2003 Exposure: Portrait of a Corporate Crime – University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA 2004 Exposure – Drik Gallery, Dhaka, Bangladesh; Leica Gallery, Prague, Czech Republic 2005 Bhopal 1984–2004 – Melkweg Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands 2005 India – Musei Capitolini Centrale Montemartini, Rome, Italy 2007 Rencontres d'Arles festival, France 2012 My India – FotoFreo, Australia 2013 Trees (Black and white), New Delhi 2014 In Light of India: Photography by Raghu Rai, Hong Kong International Photo Festival, Hong Kong 2015 Trees, Art Alive Art Gallery, Delhi 2016, The Greatest Photographs of Raghu Rai, Ojas Art, New Delhi