Hales is thrilled to announce the Metropolitan Museum of Art has acquired photographs from Sunil Gupta's 1983 series Towards an Indian Gay Image.
Over a career spanning more than four decades, Gupta has maintained a visionary approach to photography, producing a rich body of work that has pioneered a unique social and political commentary. The artist's diasporic experience of multiple cultures informs a practice dedicated to complex themes of race, migration and queer identity - his own lived experience a point of departure for photographic projects, born from a desire to see himself and others like him represented in art history. The series, Towards an Indian Gay Image was created when Gupta returned to India for the first time as an adult. During this trip he discovered that although homosexuality was still illegal, gay men had a presence, living and existing in plain sight. However, still hidden from mainstream society and unrepresented in the media, Gupta wanted to document displays of queer affection.
