Full Video Now Available: Reading Raghu Rai at Counter Foto
The full video of “Reading Raghu Rai” is now available.
The discussion was held at Counter Foto – A Center for Visual Arts on 8 May 2026 at 5 PM, in remembrance of Raghu Rai, one of the most influential image-makers of the subcontinent.
While preparing for the discussion, I found myself returning not only to Raghu Rai’s photographs, but to a deeper question:
What does photography still mean in an age when images can be generated without encounter?
This preparation also became my essay, “After the Witness: Raghu Rai and the Ethics of Seeing in the Age of Promptography.” https://moiyenzalal.com/raghu-rai-photography-witness-promptography-ai/
In both the essay and the discussion, I read Raghu Rai from my position as a photographer, visual anthropologist, teacher, and someone thinking about digital culture and promptography. His lifelong work reminds us that photography is not simply image-making. It is witness, memory, attention, responsibility, and the burden of having seen.
Raghu Rai matters now because he teaches us that not every image is a witness.
Watch the full discussion below.
