Pioneering photographer Sunil Gupta, who was recently awarded an MBE in the 2026 King’s Birthday Honours, is the subject of a major career retrospective opening this month. The exhibition, which spans five decades of work documenting queer life and migration, comes ahead of a regional tour scheduled to reach the South Coast this autumn and winter.
The retrospective, titled Sunil Gupta: Life with a Camera, 1970 – Now, opens at Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge on 19 September 2026. The collection follows Gupta’s journey through Delhi, Montreal, New York, and London, capturing the evolution of LGBTQ+ visibility and political resistance.
Gupta, who serves as a Professorial Fellow in Photography at the University for the Creative Arts (UCA) Farnham, received his MBE for services to Art and the LGBTQ+ communities. His career has been defined by a refusal to remain “shy” about queer identity, famously documenting the leather subculture and the struggle against Section 28 in the UK.
South Coast tour dates
While the main retrospective is based in Cambridge, residents in the Portsmouth and Brighton areas will have access to Gupta’s influential archives through a separate touring exhibition. Tessa Boffin: Where We Touch the Archive, which draws from the London-based Gupta+Singh Archives, showcases the work of Gupta’s long-term collaborator.
The tour is scheduled to visit Brighton as part of the Photoworks Festival from 2 to 18 October 2026. Following this, the exhibition will move to the Aspex Gallery in Portsmouth, where it will run from 2 December 2026 until 28 February 2027.
The archives preserve a vital period of British social history, particularly the collaborative efforts of artists who used photography as a tool for activism during the 1980s and 1990s.
Exhibition details and London show
The Cambridge exhibition at Kettle’s Yard runs until 31 January 2027. While entry to the gallery is free, specific events require booking.
The 2026 King’s Birthday Honours recognition marks a significant moment for Gupta. His current retrospective is considered one of the most comprehensive surveys of his contribution to British photography to date.
