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Digital photomontages underscoring the often-fragile intersections of masculinity, migration and resilience
Trespass is a series of digital photomontages made by Sunil Gupta on one of the first models of Apple computers and represents the first and only time the artist has worked with collage.
The work was created in three chapters over three years in the mid 1990s. Trespass I was produced after a trip to Berlin, and features images of Gupta himself alongside other non-European individuals to explore the presence of immigrants in a newly unified Europe, following the fall of the Berlin wall. Trespass II is situated in the artist’s own kitchen in London and, through the use of Asian and gay iconography, examines how domestic environments can also serve as sites of contested culture. Finally, Trespass III is situated in the English county of Essex, which Gupta views as a ‘gateway into England'.
When first exhibited in the 1990s the artist presented these works as 3-metre-long prints to demand visibility. The versions shown here were later produced for Autograph’s photography collection to preserve all three chapters of the work together.
Throughout the series, figures, including Gupta and the people close to him, emerge through fragments of texts and constructed imagery. Grappling with the boundaries between public and private life, these digital photomontages are layered with deep personal meaning for the artist. One image – a photograph of Gupta clutching his legs, seemingly floating above a bridge – is especially significant. He recalls: "I took a selfie on the day I was diagnosed as HIV positive in July 1995, holding a bulb and shutter release."
30 years on, Trespass remains a powerful reflection on urgent conversations that continue to arise, underscoring the often-fragile intersections of masculinity, migration and resilience.
Sunil Gupta (b. 1953, New Delhi, India/Canada/UK) was educated at the Royal College of Art, London and received a PhD from the University of Westminster, London. His work uses independent photography as a critical practice, focusing on race, migration, and queer issues.
Gupta is a Visiting Tutor at the Royal College of Art and was the Lead Curator for the 2018 Fotofest in Houston, USA. His work can be found in many private and public collections, including the George Eastman Museum (Rochester, USA), the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography (Japan), the Royal Ontario Museum (Toronto, Canada), the Tate (London, England), and the Museum of Modern Art (New York, USA).
You can follow the artist on Instagram and see more of Gupta's work on his website.
This collage is in Autograph's permanent collection of photography, where it has been conserved and digitised
Works fromTrespass featured in Gupta's retrospective, From Here to Eternity, at The Photographers' Gallery and are also being exhibited as part of the current group show I Still Dream of Lost Vocabularies at Autograph
10 Oct 2025 – 21 Mar 2026
A free exhibition examining political dissent and erasure through the idea of collage
Banner images (left to right): 1) Sunil Gupta, from the series Trespass, 1992-1995. Collection of Autograph, London. Commissioned by Focal Point Gallery/Essex County Council. © Sunil Gupta. 2) Sunil Gupta, from the series Trespass, 1992-1995. Collection of Autograph, London. Commissioned by Focal Point Gallery / Essex County Council. © Sunil Gupta. 2-4) Sunil Gupta, from the series Trespass, 1992-1995. Collection of Autograph, London. Commissioned by NGBK Berlin. © Sunil Gupta.
Artist: Photograph of Sunil Gupta by Mark Sealy, 2019.
Exhibition: Sabrina Tirvengadum and Mark Allred, Family [detail], 2023.
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