Roger & Steve, London
- Artist: Sunil Gupta
- Date: 1984, 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 “Roger & Steve, London” by Sunil Gupta. It’s a black‑and‑white portrait printed on paper in 2018 from a 1984 original. The image comes from Gupta’s series “Lovers: Ten Years On,” shot over two years after he ended his own ten‑year relationship. The couple stands and sits together in their living room, looking straight into the camera, mirroring the pose of traditional family photographs. In the early 1980s, when AIDS was still framed as a deviant threat, Gupta wanted to show queer love as ordinary, middle‑class, professional and affectionate. The subjects here are not sensationalized; they simply share a quiet moment in their own home. Many of the people he photographed would later lose their lives to HIV, adding a haunting layer to this snapshot of normalcy. The work reminds us that even in a time of fear, everyday love persists—and that a single image can be both a celebration and a quiet memorial.
See it in person
Roger & Steve, 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.
