Born in New Delhi, and growing up watching Bollywood films in all their glorious colour, Sunil Gupta moved to Montreal with his family in the late 1960s, where his interest in photography began to develop. From the mid-1970s he lived in New York, where he studied photography at the New School for Social Research under Lisette Model.

At the end of the 1970s, he moved to London to continue his studies at the Royal College of Art. He was involved in the founding of Autograph (Association of Black Photographers) in London, and he also set up the Organisation for Visual Arts (OVA) to promote a greater understanding of questions regarding cultural differences and their incorporation into the sphere of fine art.

He works as a photographer, writer, lecturer and curator out of London and Delhi. He is Visiting Faculty at the new MFA in Photography programme at NID, Ahmadabad. He was artist-in-residence at the Centre Pompidou, Paris in July 2010.

His last book was "Wish You Were Here", Yoda Press, New Delhi 2008. His latest curated project, "Where Three Dreams Cross" was at Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland (book by Steidl).  His photographs will appear in "Love's Body 2", an exhibition about the body and AIDS at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography in October. His work is represented by Vadehra Art Gallery. A new book on his work will appear in Spring 2011.