PHOTO: Raghu Rai

When is the last time you saw someone sans a camera? No device in their hands and none dangling around their necks? Well, “we can’t seem to recollect” is our answer, too. And, may be there are reasons for it. More than the power to immortalize fragments of time, a photograph brings together all the pictures you’ve seen, the books you’ve read, the music you’e heard, the people you’ve loved. To take a photograph is to participate in another person’s (or thing’s) mortality, vulnerability, mutability. Precisely by slicing out this moment and freezing it, all photographs testify to time’s relentless melt, say others. And ace Indian photographer, Raghu Rai, protégé of Henri Cartier-Bresson, pens his own take in Nat Geo Traveler.

I am called a photographer, and my dharma is photography but I think of myself as an explorer. To me, the best way to explore life is through photography. Life changes constantly, so the more you explore the more you are enriched.

A photographer’s body language and approach must adapt to the mood of the place. You need to connect, your movements need to become part of the scene so you can become invisible—that’s when you capture moments.

I was born and brought up in India, and for the last 50 years I have explored my country and developed a kind of sensitivity towards the little details of life—I feel and understand subtle nuances, which effects my response to the subject, and makes my work a little more nuanced. I don’t like to think too much about the kinds of pictures I want to make before I get to a place, because any information you receive is second hand. I believe photography is about the instinct that you have, how you experience a place, and respond to it.

To find calm in chaos, I think it’s important to understand the spiritual aspect of our lives. Think of a musician playing to a rapt audience that is connecting with him. Their collective energy and concentration empowers him. Similarly, in my discipline, when you walk into a situation, nature and life start performing for you. Each one of us have music within us, a rhythm that comes alive with life and nature.

When so much is happening around you, immerse yourself in the chaos. Feel the rhythm, connect with the energy of the scene, and the calm will emerge. When it does, seize the moment immediately. That is your moment of honesty. That is your picture.

Read the entire article here.