Timeless images

The Music, 1988 Clouds and gompas, Ladakh, 1990

FEW other photographers can catch the inner perfection of a moment more purely then Raghu Rai’s lens. Stark rock formations and clouds stare out of his photographs as also the still-moist lotus petal as it shines with dew drops. Perhaps unique in this current collection on display is not so much the moment but the silent salute to the divine feminine caught in perfectly silhouetted female bodies that Rai has caught on camera.

"There is no given theme to this collection," says Rai, "these photographs just got taken along the roadside. I was travelling, I saw something beautiful, something that moved me and that was that. It really captures the moment and the reality of that moment."

So on the one hand there is a sadhu baba whose skeleton-like form is sitting suspended among the rocks in Hampi. On the other hand, there is a ‘sensuous baby’ grabbing at his mothers shapely breasts from Tripura. There is a perfect nude figure of a voluptuous woman that peeps through carefully layered duppattas. Rai’s fascination with the female form runs as an under-current through his collection.

Whether it is an ecstatic woman sitting naked silhouetted against the skies and clouds or it is a shadowy woman sitting on a rumpled bed in a small room, with the Taj Mahal peering from behind the window. Rai’s lens has captured what lies behind the perfection of a young, curvaceous body. It is the spirit of womanhood.

Rai talks of the crazy freedom that inspires his creativity, "You have to understand my innate freedom and this is what impels me to do what I do. I take my pictures from the road-side and the streets, it is really capturing the flow of life. Inspiration runs through precious moments in the river of life and these are what I capture. Life is really beautiful and nature, enthralling and ever-changing. I am simply responding to all this, doing what I do."

Rai has also captured virtually monolithic rock formations silhouetted against clear skies from Hyderabad and near Mysore.

There is a startling picture of flash floods from near Jaipur, where the water sears lightening-like through the sands and occasional stunted trees. There are vivid pictures from Ladakh, one of dark clouds and surprisingly white gompas against the barren landscape and another of clouds and donkeys, where a lonely truck weaves through the road dotted with donkeys. The starkness of the landscape and the bright skies with scattered cloud formations make an impact. Another scenic picture is of bare, delicate bamboo branches reaching out into the infinite skyline of a North-East Indian panorama.

The sense of precious scattered moments, silence and unyielding nature filters through his photographs that transport the viewer away from cities and their pressure to a simpler, more natural and spontaneous reality.

Each photograph makes an impact, for moments the thought process stills as just the sheer immensity captured takes over. Take the stark photograph from Pokhran, a desolate sandy landscape mirrors the empty skies with a single ominous mushroom-shaped cloud hanging suspended in time. Or another photograph, but portraying a very different spirit, that of a man handing a veena to a seated companion, against the backdrop of sheer rocks and impregnable skies. One can almost hear primeval music rising from the core into the heavens.

The stationary flute player from Varanasi standing silently by the river ghat and playing to evening skies and stray floating boats captures yet another poignant moment full of the inexpressible.

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