Aicon Gallery London Presents Raghu Rai: A Retrospective

Aicon Gallery London is delighted to present a retrospective exhibition of works by Magnum photographer Raghu Rai.

"Over the centuries, so much has melded into India, that it's not really one country, and it's not one culture. It is crowded with crosscurrents of many religions, beliefs, cultures and their practices that may appear incongruous. But India keeps alive the inner spirit of her own civilization with all its contradictions. Here, several centuries have learnt to live side by side at the same time. And a good photograph is a lasting witness to that, as photography is a history of our times: being a multi-lingual, multi- cultured and multi- religious society, the images must speak these complexities through a multi-layered experience." (Raghu Rai)

Born in 1942 in a village that is now part of Pakistan, Raghu Rai took up the camera with seriousness after one of his photographs was published in The [British] Times in 1966: "It sort of tickled me and soon photography became a passion. It was just by chance, not that I wanted to become a photographer". He started off with a box camera presented to him by his brother. He was 'discovered' in 1977 by Cartier Bresson at an exhibition in Paris, and then invited to become a member of Magnum. Since then Rai has taken India as his canvas and produced works that he simply describes as slicing out spaces and moments in front of him. These spaces are often tumultuous, multivalent and polyphonic but also on other occasions capture an individual's stillness or a moment of calm within the ongoing flux.

Look out for an interview on Nightwaves Radio 3 with Raghu Rai and major write up in the Observer newpaper this month.