The Ganges

by Raghubir Singh

India is not simply a place; it is an experience. And the Ganges is not just a it is an aspect of the Divine. This is Raghubir Singh's personal pilgrimage along the from the Himalayas, where the river rises among snows, through the villages of the Gangetic Plain, past Banaras and through Bihar, to the Bay of Bengal, between India and Bangladesh. On the way he captures the essence of the river's many different stages and moods, its strange and stunning beauty, its turbulence and ferocity during the monsoon, and the intimate daily lives of the people who live along it. He shows the river's powerful religious significance, attested by the millions of Hindus who take part in the ageless pilgrimages and festivals held on its banks. Singh's camera is as fine-tuned as his sensibility. To read his introductions to each area or aspect of the Ganges and then to look at these fascinating and infinitely various photographs is to see that what he notices with his mind he can catch to an amazing degree in a visual image. In these pictures there is more than the conventionally beautiful; in them we are brought face to face with Loknadi, the river of the world.

Genres: Photography, Travel

174 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1992

Reviews

[Kiran Jonnalagadda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I the first time I encountered Raghubir Singh's work was shortly after discovering Steve McCurry. I was turned off immediately. The pictures had none of the vivid colour of McCurry's, and random artefacts cluttered each of them. Someone had suggested Singh as an antidote to McCurry, but I saw nothing in it.

It's been fifteen or so years now and that comparison has stayed with me, so this week I dusted off the book to have a look. The light is still harsh and artefacts still clutter each frame, but they're no longer random. Having gotten out a bit myself, now I see the light and clutter for what they are: the reality of India.

I had to pull out McCurry's book again to compare and I think I see it now. McCurry's gorgeous photographs are a visual spectacle. Each portrait places its subject in your gaze, free of distractions. The environment they occupy is reduced to a haze of colours.

Singh instead leaves his subjects in their environment and takes you there. You see everything they see, from the harsh light to the annoying artefacts cluttering the scene. Each frame tells a story. The traveller in worn clothing, belongings on his head, with a necklace peeking out from under the shirt? That thing is clearly his backup bank account, there to bail him out should calamity befall. It is not a mere fashion accessory. It was not even meant to be seen.

In frame after frame, Singh goes out of his way to include artefacts that a lesser photographer would have tried to exclude. I'm glad for it, because this book is a master archive of mid-20th century life on the Ganga.

[koyna · Rating 4 out of 5]

the cover, as well as the photograph that the book ends with is stunning

[Anirudh Wodeyar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Raghubir Singh sees India with such a loving and kind eye that still manages to catch some of the technical brilliance that western photography tends to (in my mind) overvalue.

This book is a slow walk down the Ganga from its mountainous abode in the Himalayas to the Sunderbans. It made me want to make that walk myself to see what it looks like now, 30 years after the last photo taken in the book

[Vaishali · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just a beautifully laid out book, with copious anecdotes to think about. A wonderful escape book...