Born into an aristocratic family in Jaipur, Singh lived and worked in Paris, London, and New York, but his lifelong subject as a photographer was the vibrant culture and landscape of modern India. With its emphasis on visual surprise and spontaneity, Singh's work belongs to the tradition of small-format street photography pioneered by such artists as Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Frank. Unlike many of his European counterparts, however, Singh worked exclusively in color, often composing his images with a graphic complexity akin to that of Mughal miniatures. Singh's prolific career was cut short when he died in 1999 at the age of fifty-eight.
Inscription: Inscribed and signed in ink on print verso Ll: "Taxi driver and pedestrian argue, Chitpur Road, Calcutta copyright (c) 1987 by Raghubir Singh"
Aperture
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Street," March 5, 2013–May 27, 2013.