Published on the occasion of the exhibition, Sunil Gupta: From Here to Eternity at The Photographers’ Gallery, London (9 October 2020 – 24 January 2021).


Born in New Delhi, India, relocated to Montreal, Canada, before studying at the Royal College of Art in London, Gupta has been using photography as a critical practice since the 1970s. Subversive, impulsive, personal and political, Sunil Gupta's socially engaged projects have focused on such issues as family, race, migration and the complexities and taboos of sexuality and homosexual life. His work has been instrumental in raising awareness around the political realities concerning the fight for international gay rights and of making visible the tensions between tradition and modernity, public and private, the body and body politics.

From Here to Eternity: following Gupta’s diagnosis as HIV positive in 1995, the images explore his experiences of living with the virus, his fear of death and how his community reacted after being diagnosed.

From his coming out while migrating with his family to Montreal, to participating in New York’s active Gay Liberation Movement in the 1970s and being an active campaigner in the early AIDS movement, to his more recent campaigning in India and around the world, Gupta has been inspirational to generations of activist photographers and LGBTQ+ rights advocates.