India+-+The+Definitive+Images

Photographs and captions compiled in __India: The Definitive Images 1858 to the Present__. Edited by Prashant Panjiar.

Best known for his concept of the 'decisive moment' in photography, Henri Cartier-Bresson visited India in the late 1940s. Apart from famous pictures of Gandhi, Nehru and other Indian leaders, Cartier-Bresson also captured scenes of Indian life as the country passed through its most decisive phase - its birth as an independent nation. Part of Raghubir Singh's book on the Ganga, which charts the river's progress from its source to its mouth, this photograph is perhaps the most famous image of Banaras and has been reproduced in numberous publications. The Ganga was Raghubir Singh's favorite subject; he kept returning to it to capture the lyricism of Indian life.
 * Henri Cartier-Bresson**
 * Muslim women praying on the slopes of Hari Parbat Hill, Srinagar, Kashmir, 1948**
 * Raghubir Singh**
 * Swimmers and diver, Scindia Ghat, Banaras, 1985**

**Steve McCurry** **Dust storm, Rajasthan, 1984** "I was driving through the desert to Jaisalmer on the India-Pakistan border. It was June and as hot as the planet ever gets. The rains had failed in this part of Rajasthan for the past thirteen months. I wanted to capture something of the mood of anticipation before the monsoon. As we drove down the road, we saw a dust storm grow - a typical phenomenon before the monsoon breaks. For miles it built into a huge, frightening wall, moving across the landscape like a tidal wave, eventually enveloping us like a thick fog. As it arrived, the temperature dropped suddenly and the noise became deafening. Where we stopped, there was a group of women and children working on the road, something they are driven to do when the crops fail. They were barely able to stand in the fierce wind now and clustered together to shield themselves from the sand and dust. I tried to take pictures. The road workers didn't even notice me. In the strange orange light, with the wind howling savagely around them, they sang and prayed. Life and death seemed to hang in the balance."  **Brian Brake** **Monsoon Girl, 1960** New-Zealand-born photojournalist Brian Brake developed the idea of a story on the monsoon in India in the late 1950s, and convinced //Life// magazine to support the project. After a few exploratory visits to research the subject, he spent nine months in India during 1960-61 shooting the images that make up his classic photoessay 'Monsoon', which first appeared in the September 8, 1961 issue of //Life//. This memorable close-up of a young woman, her face lifted up to the rain, communicates the deep, almost spiritual connection Indians have with the monsoon. Interestingly, this photograph, which became the signature image for the essay and was widely reproduced, was not shot outdoors in a monsoon shower but staged in a studio. The model is the now famous actor and director Aparna Sen, a teenager at the time. "Ganesh Chathurti, the birthday of the god Ganesh, draws millions to Bombay to honor him in a raucous festival, as much carnival as sacred event. Thousands of statues of Ganesh are carried on decorated floats, accompanied by dancing and the beat of drums, to the ARabian Sea where they are ritualistically immersed en masse. Powder bombs cover every surface and fill the air with color - a riot of red, green and magenta. In the fall of 1996, I was working on a story for //National Geographic// about India's fifty years of independence when I met this young devotee pausing for a rest on a porch along the procession route. A fleeting moment of calm like this one amidst the incredible fervor and intensity of a festival is a notion that has always captured my attention and keeps bringing me back to India."
 * Steve McCurry**
 * Red boy, Bombay, 1996**

"In the summer of 1976, I was working with the //Statesman.// On days when there wasn't much work, I would wander around the city looking for images. One afternoon I found myself at Ugrasen ki Baoli, a large, partially covered step well believed to have been built over a thousand years ago. It is located in Connaught Place, the busy commercial center of New Delhi, but few people know of it and it has been neglected for years. As I entered the baoli and went down the steps, I was overpowered by the sense of peace and the sense of time standing still. From the outside one gets not even a hint of what lies within the rubble-and-stone walls. There was a small group of boys diving and swimming in cool waters. For the one incredible instant, as I froze the leap of this boy on film, two different Indias, as least a millennium apart - the ancient, quiet baoli and the modern skyscrapers of bustling Connaught Place - seemed to coexist beyond time."
 * Raghu Rai**
 * Ugrasen ki Baoli, Delhi, 1976**