Sunil Gupta

Sunil Gupta (born 1953) is an Indian-born Canadian photographer, based in London, England. His work explores themes of sexual identity, migration, race, and family. Gupta has produced a number of books and his work is held in the collections including 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. He was awarded an Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2026 Birthday Honours for services to art and to the LGBTQ+ communities.

Early life and education Sunil Gupta was born in New Delhi, India, in 1953. He attended St. Columba's High School in New Delhi until 1969. In 1969, Gupta migrated to Montreal, Canada, with his family. There, he attended High School of Montreal until 1970.

In 1976, Gupta studied photography under Philip Halsman and Lisette Model at The New School for Social Research, New York City. including themes of sexual identity, migration, race, family and decolonisation. His work is fundamentally political, exploring the politics of his own life as a queer, Asian man.

Gupta has described his portraiture as a "constructed documentary style".

In 2019, he served on the jury that chose Susan Meiselas for the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize.

From 2020-2021, Gupta held the exhibition From Here to Eternity: Sunil Gupta. A Retrospective at the Photographer's Gallery in London. They live in Camberwell, south London. Lovers: Ten Years On. London: Stanley/Barker, 2020. . London '82. London: Stanley/Barker, 2021. .

Books of work with others Delhi: Communities of Belonging. With Charan Singh. New Press, 2016. .

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. . 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 2026 – Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) 2004 Homelands UCR/California Museum of Photography, University of California, Riverside California 2005 - 2006 Sunil Gupta Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography Ottawa 2018 Dissent and Desire Contemporary Arts Museum Houston Houston, Texas With Charan Singh 2020 - 2021 From Here to Eternity: Sunil Gupta. A Retrospective The Photographers' Gallery London Curated by Mark Sealy Collections Gupta's work is held in the following permanent collections:

Museum of Modern Art, New York: 2 prints (as of October 2020) Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Tate, UK: 18 prints (as of October 2020)