Book Review: People by Raghu Rai
Review / September 21, 2016

Title: People by Raghu Rai Writer: Raghu Rai Publisher: Aleph Books Year: 2016 ISBN: 9789383064137 Rating: Read book reviews from other readers   People by Raghu Rai is a book of portraits taken by the well-known photographer over the course of his career. According to Raghu Rai, these are his favourite portraits from amongst the ones he has photographed. Buy People by Raghu Rai online here. What I Liked, What I Didn't The cover image is arresting: Ustad Bismillah Khan meditating on his music. It is obvious that he has been caught mid-raag, at just the perfect moment. This photograph could not possibly have been 'planned'. A photograph that had to be snapped without warning, at that perfect moment when the musician, caught up in his music, completely unself-conscious, forgot that there was a photographer, an interloper, in his presence. The invisible photographer could capture a person in his most intimate, his most vulnerable moment. Of course it rarely works out that way. Rai himself writes in the introduction, "When I take a person's portrait, I am trying to capture the aura of that person". In People, Raghu Rai succeeds quite often; but not always. Take this picture, for instance….