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Nitin Rai: Capturing magical moments with his lens

Kavita, New Delhi
Brilliant photographer Nitin P^i's recent exhibition was aptly titled" India: Continent of Circe-1 ” Truly in each one of the 32 frames on display Rai has captured many a magical moment in the country: from two figures dramatically clashing midair with one another in the Kerala martial art of Kalari. to Krishna with the Gopikas in Vrindavan amidst a shower of flower petals, the ravines of dacoit land Chambal, to the beaches of Lakshwadeep, a series on the striking contrasts between modem and traditional India as well as those devoted to the colour-ful desert people of Rajasthan.
Among the photos that immediately caught the eye was “Prayer to Allah at Mincoy Islands, Lakshadweep “ (1999). Here
we get to see two figures engrossed in prayer, one with his back to the frame and the other in profile. As a group of evening strollers go by, the sea and a glorious sunset form the background. This photograph, as the others, captures its subject at different levels. Says Rai in explanation, “Be it Hindustani or Western classical music, if a person sings at the same pitch, then it becomes boring..the same way in a photograph if everything is flat then the photograph looks flat. There must be different things happening at different levels. Like the others this image captures a magical moment when the entire space connects together to create a very special feeling, and that is what I would call a photograph. If you look at this work minus any of its elements, it would not be the same."
Rai's works in 2009 include
"Playing Holi with flowers: Krishna and his Gopikas” and “Holi at Banke Bihari temple",both in Vrindavan. Then there's "Modern and traditional India 4, Delhi ." Here
we have a monument, Qutubuddin Aibak's Mazar, in the background, in the foreground a svelte model clad in a red sareee that fans out in a draft of breeze and a plane flying in.
Has he been to Dhaka? Yes says Nitin, an assignment for the German magazine Der Spiegel on the arsenic contamination of groundwater took him to the capital and villages around the city.
Is it tough being the son of iconic Indian photographer Raghu Rai, I question. "I love and respect my father and admire his work a lot. It is just that I don't want my work to look exactly like his. No, there is no question of competition. Photography chose me. It just happened that 1 became a photographer," point out Nitin.
Along the way, Nitin has naturally built up many a special niche in Indian photography. Though widely
remembered for his historic picture of religious fanatics demolishing the Babri Masjid in December 1992 which was on the cover of Time magazine and India's Sunday Magazine, he has also drawn up othef successes such as the 1993 prestigious Nikon Award for the photograph of life in the Purana Qila (Old Fort), a New Delhi monument.
Nitin will now take his first solo exhibition of photographs to Mumbai, Chandigarh and oveseas. Also on the cards is a book on India with about 80 of his images.
Asked about the defining moment in his eventful career, Nitin says," The world will see a Time magazine cover or an international award as a defining moment, but I think every little moment is your defining moment and you rediscover life continuously..."