I picked this book up by chance when browsing in the library. It has to be one of the most interesting photography books I have looked at. Gupta has looked at contemporary gay life in India and other parts of the world. He aims to tackled issues of gender and sexuality, and also documented his own experiences living with HIV.
I think what drew me to the book is the title. The word 'Queer' is plastered across the front cover, surrounded with pink and purple tones, and a man wearing a glittery mask. The front cover itself draws the reader in, and once you open the actual book, you do get sucked into the life of the men portrayed in the book. Although some images may seem almost humorous, like the ones above...the deep meaning always shines through - the tackling of inequality. A lot of the images are staged to make the models seem more 'queer' and feminine than they actually are, but I think that is the kind of picture Gupta is trying to create about the book as a whole - that they should not be ashamed of the people they are.
As I mentioned earlier, Gupta put a section in the book about his fight with HIV, called "Love and Light". This was a series of self portraits showing his battle. This is a small, but heart-wrenching part of the book, and really touches the reader. At the start of the section, you can see how the HIV took over his life completely, but by the end of the section, the images show him smiling and getting back on track with his life. The small part of the book shows an incredibly difficult part of Gupta's life and I think that it took guts to actually produce it in a book.
No comments:
Post a Comment