Photographers are visual storytellers - capturing not just a moment but the raw essence of human experience.
That said, the lens of famous Indian photojournalist Raghu Rai wove poetry out of the chaos and courage of the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War.
Iconic yet intimate, his photographs became portals to a defining chapter in the subcontinent's narrative.
His innate gift for storytelling found its voice through the camera.
Recently, Dhaka University’s Faculty of Fine Arts and the Durjoy Bangladesh Foundation jointly arranged an exhibition titled, “Rise of a Nation” featuring many of the photos taken by Raghu Rai during the 1971 war.
During the inauguration on 5 May, a book with the same title as the exhibition was launched by the Durjoy Bangladesh Foundation with Raghu Rai present as a guest at the event.
The exhibition will run until 19 May.
Strolling into the sepia of the 70s
By the early 1970s, Rai was already recognised for his ability to distil the profound and the poignant into a single frame.
Yet, it was the crucible of conflict that would elevate him to greatness.
The backdrop was charged. Bangladesh, then East Pakistan, was aflame with the fervour of independence.
As war clouds gathered, Rai embarked on a mission not merely to document, but to bear witness.
Rai was working at The Statesman at that time and was assigned to photograph the refugees coming from Bangladesh.
He traversed landscapes transformed by strife—scenes where hope and horror intermingled, where the human spirit endured against the tyranny of oppression.
Describing his time covering the war, he said it reminded him of his own experience of being a refugee at the age of 5 when India and Pakistan were partitioned.
Rai's photographs transcended mere reportage and evoked the gamut of emotions—anguish, resilience, solidarity—etched on the faces of ordinary people swept up in the tides of history.
His lens was a silent observer of the courage of freedom fighters and the suffering of refugees, of the untold stories etched into the very fabric of a nation's struggle for self-determination.
Rai captured the dignity of resilience—a mother's gaze holding the weight of displacement; children whose innocence mingled with uncertainty.
Amidst the chaos of conflict, he captured moments of human connection - reminders of a shared humanity amid devastation.
An invitation to empathy, his compositions spoke volumes without words, each frame a meditation on the fragility and fortitude of the human spirit.
Through his lens, the scars of war became a testament to the indomitable will to survive.
Beyond capturing the visible, Rai's photographs delved into the invisible—the intangible threads that bind people together in struggle.
His images of the war were not just records but reflections, mirrors that revealed the collective soul of a nation in flux.
They mirrored the pain of separation and the joy of liberation - resonating with a universal language that transcended borders.
Power of photography lies not merely in its ability to capture moments, but in its capacity to evoke empathy, and Raghu Rai’s repertoire is a testament to that.
