Sunil Gupta, Untitled #50 from the series Christopher Street, 1976
Hales is delighted that the V&A has acquired multiple works from Sunil Gupta's Christopher Street series. The celebrated Christopher Street series (1976/2019) mark the first set of photographs Gupta made as a practicing artist, using the camera as a tool for open expression. Although he uses a documentarian style, Gupta was by no means an impartial observer behind the camera, he was a participant, enthralled by his subjects.
The Christopher Street works capture a specific moment in queer history, a time of LGBTQ+ liberation, six years after the Stonewall riots of 1969. The un-staged works show a cross section of a thriving community in one of New York's most dynamic areas - Manhattan's Christopher Street. Dressed in the latest fashions, moving confidently and relaxing on street corners, their visible presence is a signifier of a specific period of public consciousness.
