Sunil Gupta (photographer)

Sunil Gupta (born 1953) ^[1] is an Indian-born Canadian photographer, based in London, England. ^[2] His career has been spent "making work responding to the injustices suffered by gay men across the globe, himself included", ^{[2] [3]} including themes of sexual identity, migration, race and family. ^[4] Gupta has produced a number of books and his work is held in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Tate. In 2020, he was awarded Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society. ^[5]

Early life and education

Gupta was born in New Delhi, India, in 1953. ^[6] In 1969, he migrated to Montreal, Canada, with his family. ^[2]

He studied at Dawson College, Montreal (1970–1972); gained a Bachelor of Commerce in accountancy at Concordia University, Montreal (1972–1977); studied photography at The New School for Social Research in New York City (1976); gained a diploma in photography at West Surrey College of Art and Design, Farnham, UK, (1978–1981); gained an MA in photography at the Royal College of Art in London (1981–1983); and gained a PhD at the University of Westminster, London (2018). ^{[7] [6] [2]}

Life and work

Gupta embraced his sexuality for the first time when he arrived at Concordia University in Montreal in 1970. He joined a campus gay liberation movement group and took photographs for its newspaper. ^[8]

His career has been spent "making work responding to the injustices suffered by gay men across the globe, himself included", ^[2] including themes of sexual identity, migration, race and family. ^[4] His series include the street photography of Christopher Street (1976); Reflections of the Black Experience (1986); Pretended Family Relationships (1988); Memorials (1995); the narrative portraits of From Here to Eternity (1999); and the highly staged and constructed scenes of The New Pre-Raphaelites (2008). ^{[2] [9]}

Other activities

In 1988, Gupta was one of the founders of the Association of Black Photographers (now Autograph ABP) in London. ^[10] In 2019, he served on the jury that chose Susan Meiselas for the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize. ^[11]

Personal life

In 1983, Gupta settled in London. ^[12]

Gupta is married to Charan Singh, also a photographer. ^[13] They live in Camberwell, south London. ^[13]

Gupta was diagnosed with HIV in 1995. ^[13]

Publications

Books of work by Gupta

• Pictures From Here. 2003. ISBN   0-9542813-2-2.
• Wish you Were Here: Memories of a gay life. New Delhi: Yoda, 2008. ISBN   978-81-906668-0-0.
• Queer. Prestel, 2011. ISBN   9783791350998.
• Christopher Street 1976. London: Stanley/Barker, 2018. ISBN   9781916410688. ^[14]
• Lovers: Ten Years On. London: Stanley/Barker, 2020. ISBN   978-1-913288-12-9. ^[15]
• London '82. London: Stanley/Barker, 2021. ISBN   978-1-913288-31-0. ^{[16] [17]}

Books of work with others

• Delhi: Communities of Belonging. With Charan Singh. New Press, 2016. ISBN   978-1-62097-265-6. ^{[18] [19]}

Books edited by Gupta

• An Economy of Signs: contemporary Indian photographs. Arts Council England; Rivers Oram, 1990.
• Ecstatic Antibodies: resisting the AIDS mythology. Edited with Tessa Boffin. Arts Council England; Rivers Oram, 1990. ISBN   9781854890054. Photographs and text.
• Disrupted Borders: an intervention in definitions of boundaries. London: Arts Council England; Rivers Oram, 1993.

Awards

• 2020: Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society, Bristol ^[20]

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions and exhibitions paired with others

• Trespass 3, Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver, 1994 ^[21]
• Homelands, UCR/California Museum of Photography, University of California, Riverside, 2004 ^[22]
• Sunil Gupta, Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography, Ottawa, Canada, 2005/2006 ^[23]
• Dissent and Desire, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Houston, Texas, 2018. With Charan Singh. ^[24]
• From Here to Eternity: Sunil Gupta. A Retrospective, The Photographers' Gallery, London, 2020/2021 ^[25] Curated by Mark Sealy. ^[2]

Exhibitions curated by Gupta

• Ecstatic Antibodies, Impressions Gallery, York, 1990; and toured to Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff, 1990/1991; and elsewhere. ^[26]

Collections

Gupta's work is held in the following permanent collections:

• Museum of Modern Art, New York: 2 prints (as of October 2020) ^[27]
• Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania ^[28]
• Tate, UK: 18 prints (as of October 2020) ^[1]

References

1. Tate. "Sunil Gupta born 1953". Tate. Retrieved 25 October 2020.
2. "Sunil Gupta on his life, his work, and gay-rights since the sixties". British Journal of Photography. 6 October 2020. Retrieved 25 October 2020.
3. Sherwin, Skye (26 June 2020). "Sunil Gupta's Untitled No 12: love, poetry and protest". The Guardian. Retrieved 25 October 2020.
4. "Sunil Gupta's photographs document 50 years of gay liberation". The Economist. 5 November 2020. ISSN   0013-0613 . Retrieved 26 November 2020.
5. "Honorary Fellowship". The Royal Photographic Society. Retrieved 4 February 2023.
6. "Sunil Gupta's best photograph: cruising for sex in New York City". The Guardian. Interviewed by Edward Siddons. 5 December 2018. Retrieved 25 October 2020.
7. "About". Sunil Gupta. Retrieved 26 October 2020.
8. Fulleylove, Rebecca (3 November 2020). "Sunil Gupta on 45 years of making pictures". Creative Review. Retrieved 26 November 2020.
9. "From Here to Eternity: Sunil Gupta. A Retrospective". The Photographers' Gallery. 18 December 2019. Retrieved 26 October 2020.
10. "Autograph ABP – Art Term". Tate. Retrieved 26 October 2020.
11. Greenberger, Alex (17 May 2019), Susan Meiselas Wins 2019 Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize, ARTnews .
12. de Souza, Pauline (2002). "Gupta, Sunil". In Alison Donnell (ed.). Companion to Contemporary Black British Culture. Routledge. pp. 132–3. ISBN   978-1-134-70025-7.
13. Cernik, Lizzie (11 May 2020). "How we met: 'He was very sexy but also very honest and good'". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 25 October 2020.
14. Cowan, Katy (21 November 2018). "Cruising on Christopher Street: Sunil Gupta's nostalgic images of New York's gay scene in 1976". Creative Boom. Retrieved 26 October 2020.
15. Rosen, Miss (29 September 2020). "Sunil Gupta's Pioneering Portraits of Proud Gay Couples". AnOther. Retrieved 26 October 2020.
16. Whitfield, Zoe (2 December 2021). "'I Put the Camera Everywhere': Sunil Gupta's Vivid Photos of 80s London". AnOther. Retrieved 16 January 2022.
17. Cresswell, Joanna (15 December 2021). "Sunil Gupta collects his archive of London's street passers-by in the 1980s in a new book - 1854 Photography". www.1854.photography. Retrieved 16 January 2022.
18. Ongley, Hannah (10 April 2017). "photographing the intimate, ordinary lives of india's illegal lgbtq community". i-D . Retrieved 26 October 2020.
19. Moskowitz, Peter (12 November 2016). "Documenting the Secret Lives of India's LGBTQ Youth". Vice. Retrieved 26 October 2020.
20. "RPS Awardees in conversation... Sunil Gupta HonFRPS". Royal Photographic Society. Retrieved 26 November 2020.
21. "Sunil Gupta". Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver. Retrieved 26 October 2020.
22. Roug. "Where they're coming from" . Retrieved 26 October 2020.
23. "Sunil Gupta". National Gallery of Canada. Retrieved 26 October 2020.
24. Gray, Chris (30 January 2018). "Dissent and Desire Shows the Complexity of LGBTQ Life in India". Houstonia . Retrieved 26 October 2020.
25. Cochrane, Lauren (8 October 2020). "Sunil Gupta: photographing India's queer scene over 50 years". The Face. Retrieved 25 October 2020.
26. Williams, Elaine. "Review: Pictures of hope and despair". New Scientist. Retrieved 28 October 2020.
27. "Sunil Gupta". The Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved 25 October 2020.
28. "Philadelphia Museum of Art - Collections Object : Untitled". Philadelphia Museum of Art. Retrieved 25 October 2020.

External links

• Official website
• "Sunil Gupta’s life in photos" at i-D