The great saxophonis Kadri Gopalnath passed away recently. A sad news for connoisseurs of Indian classical music. I had made an extensive photo series on him in the mid 80s, when he was in his 30s. I was a teenager then! My photo series and the accompanying text was the first major story on him in the media. He had just returned from a successful tour of the US and was seen as a rising star. He had already performed at many Jazz festivals around the world. He was a family friend. He was a regular visitor to Ashoka Vardhana’s Atree Book Store whenever he was in town….Here are some of the images that I had made in 1985.

The B&W image is from 1985/6. I was following Kadri Gopalnath to make a photo story on him. It was at a neighbourhood performance in Rajajinagar, Bangalore. A street was cordoned off and a pandal was put up. The one on the right was at the Ramanavami music festival at Fort High School Bangalore, in 2010. This image was published in my photo column in Kannada daily Vijaya Karnataka. When he saw this diptych, he was so amused that he called me and spoke to me with great joy. Perhaps other than Yajna of Mangalore, no other photographed has had the privilege of photographing Kadri across 2 ½ decades.