As the world bids farewell to photography icon Raghu Rai, his posthumous work remains a guiding light. (Source: Instagram/@billshapiro)THE ACCLAIMED photographer Raghu Rai, who died in Delhi on Sunday, had helped curate photos for a book that is yet to be published – the Habitat Forum India’s (INHAF – Indian National Habitat Forum) forthcoming book titled ‘City Economies in the Global South: Growth, Inclusion and Sustainability’. The book is to be published by Routledge.“As a prestigious international publication, the book called for a visual narrative that would match its intellectual ambition. It deserved images curated with the same depth, credibility, and integrity that defined its scholarship — and that, in turn, required a photographer of equal standing. Raghu Rai was the natural choice,” Kirtee Shah, Ahmedabad-based veteran architect, urban planner and city development specialist told The Indian Express on Monday.Habitat Forum India’s (INHAF-Indian National Habitat Forum) long-running Rethinking Cities webinar series, initiated during the pandemic period in 2020, has brought together over 600 urban professionals, academics, civil society actors and grassroots organisations to reflect on the future of cities. The informal vendor and service provider and the low-tech, specializedmechanics of the urban transport economy are represented by a solemn-looking,bearded man sitting proudly in the midst of an explosion of bicycle wheels. (Image Credit: Himani Priyamwada)“These discussions opened up a wider societal dialogue on how cities are planned and governed, questioning whether urbanisation can move beyond being only an engine of economic growth to becoming socially cohesive, culturally vibrant and ecologically sensitive. Building on this, INHAF initiated a series of book projects to carry these ideas forward. Following the earlier publication Conservation and the Indian City: Bridging the Gap, the second book focuses on the question of City Economies in the Global South, a second book to be out in two-three months has photographs selected by Raghu Rai,” Kirtee Shah says.Kirtee Shah is the founder-president of INHAF (India Habitat Forum), Ahmedabad based national network of habitat professionals and civil society organisations established in 1999 to focus on affordable housing, slum improvement, and participatory urban development. He is also founder-director of the Ahmedabad Study Action Group (ASAG) The two young children are standing before the neatly stacked colorfulbrooms, and their serious and jubilant looks summarize the contrast between a child’sdream and the reality of the precariousness of informal work. (Image Credit: Himani Priyamwada)Within this framework, INHAF felt the need to include a visual dimension that could capture what research and analysis alone cannot – the lived realities of urban economies. The images were not intended as illustrations but as part of the narrative of the book, he adds.Shah added, “For this, INHAF organised an international photography competition and reached out to Raghu Rai to guide the process. He agreed to come on board as a one-man jury, extending support to the initiative. The communication and coordination were facilitated through his office, with his wife, Gurmeet Rai closely involved throughout. This is a special project as we are not talking about his photographs but those by others and shortlisted by him.”Story continues below this adThe competition, anchored around Raghu Rau’s involvement, received 16 submissions comprising nearly 100 photographs. These were compiled and shared with him for review. From this, seven photographs were selected for inclusion across the book, including its cover and thematic sections. Women enjoy the afternoon by the lakefront, βinding moments of restbetween the rhythms of daily chores. (Image Credit: Jiya Madaan)Those who interacted with him during this process encountered a quiet generosity. “There was no grandiosity, no distance — only attentiveness, thoughtfulness and a willingness to give of his time and insight. With Gurmeet Rai’s steady facilitation, the collaboration unfolded with grace and ease, marked by mutual respect and shared purpose. What emerged in the end was more than a set of photographs. It was a visual narrative that deepened the book’s central argument — that cities must be understood not just through economies and infrastructures, but through the people who inhabit them, shape them, and endure within them,” Kirtee Shah elaborated on his association on the project.He (Raghu Rai) taught us that to look is not the same as to see, that beneath every statistic lies a story, that the true measure of a city—or a nation—is not found in its skylines, but in the faces of its people, added Shah.