It was so, so heartbreaking to hear about Ajay Salvi’s passing away yesterday. And realising furthermore that today was his birthday!
I have unfortunately not worked with Ajay as much as I wished I would have in the recent past. Yet I carry very fond memories of the time when we have worked together.
Roughly in the year 2000 when I was an art director with Chaitra Leo Burnett, I had enjoyed working with him on a campaign for Hitachi Air Conditioners, which was the era when digital photography had not exploded onto the scene. Back then there was a deep sense of trust we art directors put in our photogapher partners, given that each shot did not come up for scrutiny on a hooked-up Mac screen like today, and only the photographer knew exactly what he was shooting for me through his viewfinder.
I recall Ajay was shooting some toppish and wide ‘funny-angle’ shots of a character model for me, for which this jolly photographer had climbed up on one of those aluminium-staired ‘ghodas’ (horses) for the height he needed to get me that effect.
Always easygoing, soft spoken and warm, Ajay was a darling of so many of my creative friends across the Mumbai advertising circuit.
Even if we hadn’t worked that often recently with each other, I would often bump into him when he would drop into office to work with one of our teams. He would always have an encouraging comment or two when he would appreciate something he had seen in my personal black and white Mumbai photo series which he would follow.
Another distinct memory of Ajay, is how his passion for his art and craft of photography ran so deep that back in the day when he got his first and only Orange cell phone number, he had paid for and chosen a special number – 98200 35 120 – because embedded within that number was his skill, of shooting on both prevailing film formats, 35mm and 120mm.
All of that, that simple love, that passion, is so rare and is so going to be missed!
(The author is CCO, Ogilvy India.)
