{"id":1814,"date":"2010-10-12T11:54:20","date_gmt":"2010-10-12T10:54:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mostlyfood.co.uk\/wp\/?p=1814"},"modified":"2022-01-04T17:01:53","modified_gmt":"2022-01-04T17:01:53","slug":"raghu-rais-delhi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mostlyfood.co.uk\/index.php\/raghu-rais-delhi\/","title":{"rendered":"Raghu Rai\u2019s Delhi – book review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Raghu Raghu Rai may not be a name familiar to you unless you are a photography professional. He has, however, had a career which has been so noteworthy that he was awarded the Padmashree in 1971, one of India\u2019s highest civilian awards. Raghu\u2019s National Geographic article \u201cHuman Management of Wildlife in India\u201d won him high praise in 1992. He has won national and international awards, and has exhibited in Europe, Japan and Australia. His work has appeared in many of the world\u2019s most prestigious magazines and newspapers including Time, Life, GEO, The New York Times, Sunday Times, Newsweek, The Independent, and the New Yorker.<\/span><\/p>\n

Raghu Rai\u2019s Delhi is an archetypal coffee table book… that is to say that it is the size of a small coffee table. I have reviewed many large-format books but this is the largest and the most impressive. This is surely going to become a classic not only of Indian photographic subject matter but of photographic work in general, not for reasons of sheer volume but for quality of composition.<\/p>\n

This book is the third that Raghu Rai has published on Delhi and it spans 40 years of this man\u2019s celebrated work. He has enjoyed changes in photographic technology over those years and now carries only a digital camera. He hasn\u2019t turned his back on black and white, he assess each shot and converts colour to monochrome, and the mix of both genres adds much to this major work. The colour pictures have vibrancy and impact and the black and white show mood and texture.<\/p>\n

You don\u2019t have to have a passion for the subcontinent to appreciate Raghu Rai\u2019s Delhi. It is magnificent in its representation of humanity that we can all relate to. This book dwells neither on poverty nor on opulence, it shows candid scenes from everyday life, scenes that might have gone unnoticed or considered banal by those of us with a less practised eye. Each shot captures a never-to-be-repeated moment. A story vividly painted.<\/p>\n

Do I have favourite pictures? Perhaps. \u201cPeeping Faces, New Shopping Complex\u201d shows a modern, light and airy sari shop with shelves filled with precisely folded lengths of gorgeous fabric. Modern furniture gives an almost Scandinavian feel to this picture which does still manage to speak of Indian style and grace. The facing page is \u201cReflections at Pizza Hut\u201d showing a scene that could be repeated all over the world, but the reflections in the window suggest an older India.<\/p>\n

Raghu Rai\u2019s Delhi is quite simply the seminal photographic work on this amazing city. I have pored over this book for hours. Each frame is a masterpiece in its own right. Raghu Rai deserves his praise and awards. His talent must be a gift from one of India\u2019s many Gods.<\/p>\n

Raghu Rai\u2019s Delhi
\nAuthor: Raghu Rai
\nPublished by: Thames and Hudson
\nPrice: \u00a349.95
\nISBN 13: 978-0500543771<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Travelogue review by Chrissie Walker \u00a9 2018<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Raghu Rai may not be a name familiar to you unless you are a photography professional. He has, however, had a career which has been so noteworthy that he was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24440,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,3485,10],"tags":[538,397,78,2073],"class_list":["post-1814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","category-culture-and-art","category-travel","tag-delhi","tag-india","tag-photography","tag-raghu-rai"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mostlyfood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mostlyfood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mostlyfood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mostlyfood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mostlyfood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1814"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.mostlyfood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1814\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10164,"href":"https:\/\/www.mostlyfood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1814\/revisions\/10164"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mostlyfood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mostlyfood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mostlyfood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mostlyfood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}