20
FAHTHAI
This shot shows a rush of commuters at Churchgate
Railway Station in 1995. Back then, photographer Raghu
Rai was shooting in film and chose to photograph in black
and white as it offered “greater control than colour”. In
focus are two bespectacled men, each of them poring over
a newspaper as a wave of commuters decked out in white
streams by. It’s an ethereal image: the deluge of people
seeming to form a single, flowing sheet of fabric. Rai’s
background as a newspaper photographer and picture
editor is apparent in his work, which is predominantly
monochrome. “Black and white is more reportage style;
it’s grittier. For me, colour becomes pretty and vibrant and
can take away from the seriousness of the subject matter
I often cover.” The photographer’s work revolves around
the complex social and political issues at play in India, his
homeland. “This is what matters to me and these themes
are always present in my work” he says. “A photograph
has picked up a fact of life and that fact will live forever.”
Mumbai, India
