Veteran photojournalist Raghu Rai was conferred with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 6th National Photography Awards on Wednesday. Union ministers Venkaiah Naidu and Rajyavardhan Rathore were present at the ceremony.

Rai, who is a Padma Shri awardee, began his career in photography in 1965. He has published more than 18 books, and his photo essays have appeared in international magazines and newspapers, including Time, Life, The New York Times and Sunday Times. Rai has also served on the jury of World Press Photo and Unesco’s International Photo Contest.

“For me, history and the turn of events are all part of a larger realisation,” Rai had told Scroll.in in an interview in 2015. He had said that he found it difficult to understand history without his camera. “I can never be true to my experiences without it.”

The subjects of his photographs include MS Subbulakshmi, Bismillah Khan, Mother Teresa, Satyajit Ray, Indira Gandhi, Raj Kapoor and Mrinal Sen. “When I take a person’s portrait, I am trying to capture the aura of that person,” Rai wrote in his book People: His Finest Portraits. “I am trying to get the truth of that person to emerge in the photograph.”