In summer 1978, New Delhi-born, Montreal-raised photographer Sunil Gupta arrived in London. “I was following a guy,” Gupta tells AnOther from his home in south London. The two had first met in Canada while enrolled in business school. After graduating, Gupta’s boyfriend took a job that required him train in New York City before sending him to London to work.
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Just entering his twenties, Gupta went along for the ride, thinking he would get a job when he arrived. Things didn’t quite work out as he had planned. “We started out at a similar footing as students but working at the bank he got settled quickly and became relatively well off,” Gupta says. “I had gone the other way. I made no money at all and had become completely dependent. It didn’t seem to matter. We were together and in the gay world, ten years seemed like a long time especially back then.”
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After Gupta received him MA in Photography from the Royal College of Art in 1983, the Home Office sent him back to Montreal until he as able to get a visa to live and work in the UK. Once things had finally stabilized, the relationship came to an end – much to Gupta’s surprise. “My life changed quite dramatically: not only was I single but I had to fend for myself. I left with a suitcase. I had no rights at all. Although the UK legalized the sex act in the late 60s, they didn’t legalize [gay] marriage until the 2010s. It took them 50 years to get around to that part of things,” he says.
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