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Edmund Lee

48 HOURS: I'm surprised to see so many colour photographs at your ArtisTree exhibition (which runs through September 21). From the previous media coverage that I saw online, most of your work seems to be in black and white.
RAGHU RAI: I'm often asked, "What is black and white to you?" But the fact is, I started taking pictures in 1965, and back then, there was only black and white. I was working with a newspaper and it carried only black-and-white pictures. Closer to the 1980s, colour photos started to come into the world. Hong Kong is a free port, and you can get anything you want, but in India you couldn't get a colour camera for many years. So colour photography came to India much later.
The world has changed a lot since you started. Are you OK with the fact that most people only get to know your work through the internet?
The internet is an added attraction where you can share your work with people. But many of these young photographers working in digital photography — which I have also started doing — don't have any knowledge of tradition. For us [in the previous generation], printmaking and having a photograph in your hand means a lot. What is a photographer who has no photographs? Today, it's all on the screen, and it comes and disappears. Even today, after shooting on a digital camera, I go back, make a selection and make prints.
Are there any new trends in photography that have annoyed you?
One is that the colours are exaggerated by digital technology, and the youngsters think, "wow". That is one thing. Another is using extreme wide angles and distorting images. When somebody is standing and talking to you like this [ gestures a short distance] and you're taking a picture with wide angle lens, this hand of mine is this big and the other hand is this small. This is upsetting. People don't have respect for the honest perspective of things.
Photography has a long tradition in the West. Do you think there's anything about India that only you can capture and a foreign photographer cannot?
Cameras were created in Europe; photography was born in Europe. What happened there, we in the East tended to follow. But if you photograph with your instinct, then your mind — which is influenced by the West — is silenced. If the instinct is from here [ points   at himself] you will be photographing your country and your people from a personal perspective. That is essential for all of us, because the East is totally different from the West.
As a photojournalist, why do you choose to work only in India?
I am a shy person and I never wanted to go abroad. In 1969, I got a fellowship to go to London; I worked with  The Times newspaper for four weeks and then they offered me a job. But I'm shy and I was not comfortable taking a camera and walking into people's lives. But in my own country, I can walk into a situation with a smile.
Considering how often you go into the crowds to take your pictures, it's funny to hear that you're a shy person. Do you usually engage with your subjects?
In most cases, no. Because that takes away the spontaneity of things. It is important that before people get conscious of you, you grab your moment and walk away.
Do you take a lot of photos and then only publish a few of them?
I take a lot, a lot. When I was taking photos of Mother Teresa — I did two books on her — when I went to her home on the second day, and took some pictures, she said, "You've taken so many pictures already, isn't that enough?" She was uncomfortable. I said, "Mother, you pray every day — morning, evening, and you go on praying. Mother, this is my prayer to understand the world." And she said, "All right."
 


The Inquisition: photojournalist Raghu Rai talks about taking pictures of Mother Teresa

Magazines

48 Hours

I'm often asked, "What is black and white to you?" But the fact is, I started taking pictures in 1965, and back then, there was only black and white.
