When Sunil Gupta moved from New York to London in the late 1970s, he was surprised to find no equivalent of Christopher Street. Gay men and lesbians seemed hidden, visible only in a handful of pubs and clubs that closed early. This was changing as the fledgling gay marches of the 1970s grew, drawing increasing numbers of confident people coming out through public protest.
 
The photographs span the mid-to-late 1980s, documenting Pride before corporate sponsors and logos, alongside protests responding to specific issues: CND anti-nuclear demonstrations, support for the miners' strikes and opposition to Clause 28, legislation prohibiting local authorities from "promoting homosexuality". Introduced by Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government, it remained in force from 1988 to 2000 in Scotland and until 2003 elsewhere in Britain.
 
"Photography itself was also undergoing a major documentary debate. Questions arose about photographing political marches: who was taking the pictures, and why? I wanted to make my position clear, as someone within the community. It was my community." —Sunil Gupta
 
Born in New Delhi, Gupta moved to Montreal before studying at London's Royal College of Art. He has used photography critically since the 1970s. Subversive, spontaneous, personal and political, his socially engaged projects address family, race, migration and the complexities and taboos of sexuality and gay life. His work has made visible the political realities of the international struggle for gay rights and tensions between tradition and modernity, public and private, the body and the body politic.