India, April 27 -- Raghu Rai, one of the defining photographers of South Asia, died in New Delhi on April 26 after battling cancer. He was 83. To write about him now is to come to terms with the passing of a certain photographic weather. Rai belonged to a generation for whom the camera was a witness to the unfinished project of nation building. His unique vision was forged through photojournalism. Born in 1942 in Jhang, Rai came from a family marked by Partition. His elder brother photographer S Paul, introduced him to the medium. Rai joined The Statesman in 1966, later worked with Sunday, and then India Today, where he shaped the magazine's formative years. The newsroom gave him speed, access, proximity, and importantly a front row seat to...