Photographer, curator, and activist Sunil Gupta has made work over the last four decades characterized by its social and political commentary on race, queer identity, and migration (he grew up in Delhi, moved to Canada as a teenager, then to the US and ultimately to London, where he lives now). Some of his first photographs were taken of New York City’s Christopher Street in the mid-1970s; for Exiles (1986-87), he photographed gay men in front of famous tourist sites in Delhi. His work is on view in the exhibition This Is Britain: Photographs from the 1970s and 1980s, at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., through June 11, as well as in the group show Queer Love at the Lehman College Art Gallery through April 28. His latest book, We Were Here: Sexuality, Photography, and Cultural Difference, was published by Aperture in October.
Gupta responded to five questions from photograph.
Name a photograph that brings you joy.
Photographs of my partner, Charan Singh, also known as #husbandji on Instagram. He loves to pose in exuberant and silly ways that remind me how much it is possible to love someone even if they didn’t exactly turn out to be the person you thought you were marrying.
Favorite photo book?
W. Eugene Smith: Master of the Photographic Essay (Aperture 1981). It’s a book I have treasured for many years and often turn to. For those who haven’t come across it, it looks like enlarged contact sheets from his photo essays. It’s an insight into the choices made by a working photographer, and I made an important discovery that greatly influenced me: that a story didn’t have to turn on a decisive moment.
Last exhibition you saw?
Sonia Boyce: Feeling Her Way at the Turner Contemporary. Last Saturday a friend and I drove down to the seaside town of Margate in Kent to see Sonia’s exhibition. We hadn’t made it to Venice last year, where it won the Golden Lion for Best National Participation at the 59th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia 2022. It was amazing to spend time with the work in a quieter moment and in a quieter location with glimpses of the North Sea. I’ve known Sonia since the ’80s, and it was nice to see her get the recognition she deserves.
Favorite museum?
I haven’t got one, but I suppose it would have to be the Tate Modern, as it is just down the road from me and feels like an extension of home. But I can’t help remembering Lisette Model telling me, “Darling, when your work is dead, it will end up in the museum.” She used to take us, her students, to the Metropolitan in New York to photograph the live people looking at the dead art.
Favorite work of art that’s not a photograph?
Currently, it’s a city – Rome. I’m completely enamored with it and have been there as frequently as possible in the last year. I want to learn the language and spend more and more time wandering the streets with a camera away from my everyday life. I think it will see me through my 70s.
Best of 2016
Formed in 1963 by 11 photographers who recognized the necessity of “a forum to address the underrepresentation of African Americans in their field,” the Kamoinge Workshop gave its members a sense of solidarity and support in a period when black Americans were the frequent subject of mainstream media coverage but rarely its author.
The Shifting Borders of Photojournalism and Fine Art Photography
Disturbed by the lack of a visual record of Americ...
Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons: Multimedia Mythmaker
At the Brooklyn Museum, the inquisitive Cuban-born artist presents work in photography, assemblage, performance, and painting.
Image and Object: Erin Shirreff, Sara VanDerBeek, and Catherine Wagner
Three notable shows in Northern California this summer provide examples of how sculpture, and the idea of sculpture, are explored in photo-based work: Erin Shirreff, Sara VanDerBeek, and Catherine Wagner each make photo-based art and objects that are deeply informed by sculptural concerns.
Yasumasa Morimura's All-Star Cast of Artists across History
For Yasumasa Morimura’s first full-length video, E...
Louise Lawler: Playing with Pictures
In 2002, the Museum of Modern Art closed its doors...
Eight Photographs. Eight Ways to Contemplate the Climate Crisis
In a special feature, photograph magazine asked eight professionals in the field of photography to each select a single photograph related to the climate crisis that resonated with them in the last year.
Roxana Marcoci
MoMA's senior photography curator talks about her cross-disciplinary approach to curatorial work, Wolfgang Tillmans, An-My Lê, and more.
Victor Burgin Revisits Photopath
The influential artist and writer reinstalls a landmark work for a new generation of viewers.
Zanele Muholi and the Women's Mobile Museum
At this point in her career, the barriers faced by South African photographer Zanele Muholi – barriers preventing her from speaking her truth and taking control of her own image – would seem to have been dispatched, conquered by the force of her powerful photographs and stunning, theatrical self-portraits.
Scorpio Rising: Robert Mapplethorpe
Robert Mapplethorpe’s name seems to grow in mythic...
Photo-Poetics: Works Both Allusive and Elusive
With nearly two billion images posted each day on ...