‘From Here to Eternity’ at the Photographers’ Gallery in London is the first major retrospective of Delhi-born, UK-based Canadian photographer Sunil Gupta and offers a complex and layered view of Gupta's unique transcontinental photographic vision.
Spanning five decades, the exhibition now open until February 2021 brings together all the key series from his pioneering photographic practice for the first time, as well as presenting never-before exhibited works.
Subversive, impulsive, personal and political, Gupta’s socially engaged practice has focused on themes of identity, family, race, migration and the complexities and taboos of sexuality, the Photographers’ Gallery notes.
A committed activist, Gupta’s work has been instrumental in raising awareness around the political realities concerning the fight for international gay rights, and making visible the tensions between traditional and contemporary societies, public and private, the body and body politics. The retrospective is described as a timely reflection and overview of his politically engaged work that continues to tackle ongoing issues around LGBTQ+ rights.
“What does it mean to be a gay Indian man? This is the question that follows me around everywhere I go and is still ever present in my work,” says Gupta, 67.
The retrospective features a range from street photography (Christopher Street, 1976) to narrative portraits (From Here to Eternity, 1999), along with highly staged and constructed scenes (The New Pre-Raphaelites, 2008) and a selection of early investigations into digital image making (Trespass, London, 1992-1995).
The exhibition is curated by Mark Sealy and backed by the Bagri Foundation. The Photographers’ Gallery (TPG) was founded in 1971 as the first public gallery in the UK dedicated to the photography. Its mission is to provide a home for photographers as well as a serious space to showcase the breadth of the medium and champion its value and position as one of our most significant and accessible art forms.