Well-known photojournalist R Raveendran, who clicked the iconic picture of Delhi University student Rajiv Goswami setting himself on fire during the Mandal Commission agitation that intensified the protests leading to VP Singh government's resignation, passed away here after a brief illness.
He was 69 and ia survived by wife and daughter. He worked with AFP and was ANI's Photo Editor at the time of his death.
He joined the AFP as a teleprinter operator in 1973 and learned the tricks of photography in early 1980s, Raveendran shot to limelight after he shot the picture of Goswami, a 20-year-student, who set himself on fire at the Deshbandhu College in south Delhi's Kalkaji on 19 September, 1990. Goswami breathed his last in 2004 due to health problems arising out of the bid to take his own life.
The picture made it to the front pages of almost all newspapers in the country and the iconic image led to intensified agitation, leading to the downfall of the then VP Singh government.
"I jumped over the fence and ran towards the burning Goswami and started taking photos. I knew I had canned it but was a bit anxious until I processed the film. Once Doug saw the negative he gave a wink and raised an invisible toast to me. My picture was on the front pages of all the Indian newspapers the next day and seemed to serve as the spark for a whole series of similar protests that engulfed India in the next days and weeks," AFP had quoted Raveendran as saying in 2014.
His visual coverage of the Surat plague also earned him a lot of praise. His picture on Surat plague got into Time, Newsweek and Paris Match at one go.
(Published 19 June 2022, 14:19 IST)
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