My Nana – Narayan Rao Kulkarni had perhaps established Kalanidhi photo studio in Bijapur sometime in 1920s-1930s. It was a regular commercial photo studio where they would get steady customers. He has experimented with family and portrait photography as there are clicks of families, newly married couples and young children.

When we first started scanning at home, we were quite struck by this particular picture of a young boy wearing a coat with dark glasses on a metal tricycle which is quite different from modern day tricycles. The boy seems to be looking straight at the camera. Were the coat, dark glasses and tricycle – his studio props?

Given the confidence, one can imagine the young boy to have grown into a fine young man, then perhaps aged gracefully. When I see these portraits, I wonder, who these people were and what was their story?