Sunil Gupta - Artist Talk

Sunil Gupta (b. 1953 New Delhi, India) moved to Canada as a teenager in the late 1960s, studying a Bachelor of Commerce at Concordia University, Montreal before moving to New York and enrolling in photography courses with Lisette Model, Philippe Halsman and George Tice at the New School, NY, USA (1976). He went on to receive: a Diploma from West Surrey College of Art & Design, (now UCA) Farnham, Surrey, UK (1981); an MA from Royal College of Art, London, UK (1983); and a PhD from the University of Westminster, London, UK (2019) with a thesis titled "Queer Migrations." Honorary Awards include an MA from the Surrey Institute of Art and Design, Fellowships from the Royal Photographic Society and the Royal College of Art, and an Honorary Doctorate from the University of York.

In 1989, Gupta co-founded Autograph - the Association of Black Photographers, and in 1992 he was awarded an INIVA curatorial franchise, the Organisation for Visual Arts (OVA), aimed at promoting a better understanding of culturally diverse visual arts practices.

Over a career spanning more than five decades, Gupta has maintained a visionary approach to photography, producing bodies of work that are pioneering in their social and political commentary. The artist's diasporic experience of multiple cultures informs a practice dedicated to themes of race, migration and queer identity - his own lived experience a point of departure for photographic projects, born from a desire to see himself and others like him represented in art history.

He has published and edited many books including: We Were Here: Sexuality, Photography, and Cultural Difference (2022);
Christopher Street (2018); Delhi: Communities of Belonging (2016); Queer (2011); Wish You Were Here (2008); Pictures from Here (2003); Disrupted Borders (1993); Ecstatic Antibodies (1990); and an Economy of Signs (1990). Gupta's most recent book 'I Call You My Love' is published by Trolley Books (2026).

He has just opened a major retrospective exhibition at Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge Sunil Gupta: Life with a Camera, 1970 – Now (19 September 2026 – 31 January 2027), the most comprehensive survey of the artist’s work to date, which will travel to IKON Gallery, Birmingham and Leeds. The exhibition follows From Here to Eternity, a major touring retrospective curated by Mark Sealy, co-organised by The Photographers’ Gallery, London (2020) and The Image Centre, Toronto (2022) in collaboration with Autograph, London.

Gupta lives and works in London. He is a Professorial Fellow in Photography at the University for the Creative Arts, Farnham. In 2026 he was awarded an MBE for Services to Art and to the LGBTQ+ Communities in the King’s Birthday Honours list. 

sunilgupta.net/