During the past thirty years Raghubir Singh has made countless personal journeys across the vast Indian subcontinent. He has travelled along the Ganges, toured the ghats and alleys of Benares and explored the cosmopolitan cities of Calcutta and Mumbai. The result is a series of vibrant photographs that capture the exuberant spirit and restless activity of his native India. Singh always succeeds in getting into the heart of the scene and intuitively portraying it from the insider's point of view.
In his engaging and informative introduction to River of Colour, Raghubir Singh explains what India means to him, focusing in particular on the importance of colour in India. Singh's instinctual affinity with colour is seen again and again in his pictures that follow. Arranged in eleven sections that depict aspects integral to India life, including the street, monuments, icons, water and pilgrimages, Singh's photographs reveal everything from the magical to the mundane, providing a comprehensive picture of the country that remains imprinted in the mind.
When reviewing Singh's 1989 show at the Smithsonian Institution, The Washington Times art critic commented on, 'Singh's eye, wich is memorable both for the absence of pedantry and its almost Cartier-Bresson-like sensibility to the telling moment.' It is this sensitivity, this ability to find the essence of a scene and capture it in a single frame that makes this life-long work - this 'act of living' - so monumental. As V.S. Naipaul told him, 'You have delivered something real to us.'
