Dylan & Gerald, London
- Artist: Sunil Gupta
- Date: 1985, printed 2018
- Medium: Photograph, inkjet print on paper
- Dimensions: image: 500 x 330 mm
- Museum: Tate Britain
- Collection record: Tate Britain website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
This is the “Dylan & Gerald, London” by Sunil Gupta. It comes from his 1985 series “Lovers: Ten Years On,” shot between 1984 and 1986 after Gupta’s own ten‑year partnership ended. The images are black and white portraits of gay couples in their own homes, staged like traditional family photographs. Dylan and Gerald are shown side‑by‑side, arms around each other, looking directly into the camera, a quiet intimacy that defies the hostile media narrative of the time.
Gupta, a South Asian artist working in London, used photography to document the ordinary, middle‑class, professional lives of his friends. In an era when the HIV/AIDS epidemic was framed as a threat to “society,” his work offered a counter‑story, presenting queer love as normal and committed. Many of the couples photographed later lost their lives to AIDS, giving the series a poignancy that extends beyond the 1980s.
The work was printed in 2018 using inkjet on paper, preserving the stark contrast and fine detail of the original negatives. It captures a moment when queer identities were being contested publicly and privately, and Gupta’s lens turned the spotlight onto love, domestic space, and the everyday resilience of these couples.
See it in person
Dylan & Gerald, London is in the collection of Tate Britain on Millbank, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
