Seventeenth International Conference on the Arts in Society

Abstract

Testimonial to his artistic skills, the name Raghu Rai stands monumental in the photography industry in India. The present paper traces the contemporary Indian photographer Raghu Rai and his humble beginnings. It takes the readers through his early career and during his photo-journalism days. While the early 1970s witnessed the rise of Raghu Rai’s career, they also observed rising tension in the Eastern Pakistan sparked by rebellion. Eastern Pakistan, or present day Bangladesh was a country bought with blood. Women raped, children mutilated and tortured, there was no mercy for anyone. People who survived had their own set of stories to tell filled with trauma. Rai’s Bangladesh: The Price of Freedom takes the viewer through a journey. It starts with silent cries for help; the photographer takes you through places of hope filled with void. His photo book is not to be seen but to be read. A journey narrating dreams of a new beginning; a journey putting an end to tyranny. The present paper is an attempt to read into these photographs to better understand the narration amidst political chaos.