As the year draws to a close, reflection on all that’s happened is par for the course. How we choose to remember and commemorate the last 365 days is deeply personal, intimate even. As it is in the case of Ashish Gupta, the London-based fashion designer, whose new publication GAZE frames time’s passing in a narrative of personal queer desire.
Produced in collaboration with Studio Voltaire, the book publication assembles 365 photographs, each offering playful, intimate insight into the public figure’s inner world. “I thought it would be good to do something outside my usual practice,” Ashish explains. “I’d been taking photos for a few years now, like a secret personal project, a diary of sorts, so I thought it would be nice to use that as a starting point for the project.”
Parallels between the images printed in the book’s pages and the extroverted glamour of Ashish’s fashion work can be found in the honed sensitivity to colour and formal composition. There’s also the threading of sharp visual puns throughout—ad signs promising ‘The tastes of Europe’ juxtaposed by images of boys more than willing to offer just that, for example. Though, while Ashish may not shy away from formal anatomic exploration through silhouette in his designs, this preoccupation is decidedly direct in his photography.
“I wanted the publication to be unapologetic about queer desire — love, lust, sex, cruising, hookups, and trade,” the designer explains. “I grew up in India where queer erotic imagery was completely unavailable and illegal. The only porn I encountered was from a heterosexual male point-of-view. So for me, the first queer erotic imagery I encountered — apart from the homoeroticism that has been smuggled into much classical art — was when I moved to London in 1996.”
Through Ashish’s lens, the eroticism typical of art treating queer desire does not limit itself to be bodies we typically see celebrated. “Queer desire is often either too sanitised or too codified. It’s either soft-focus Athena posters or Tom of Finland beefcakes. Neither really reflect my experience and I wanted to try and capture that,” he says. “Many of us have been told that our bodies are too feminine, too fat, too skinny, or just not welcomed because of our colour. I wanted to photograph a wide range of people who were uninhibited about their bodies and their sexuality. Older, younger, people of colour, leather guys, sock fetishists, exhibitionists… It’s easy to be hung up around sex, particularly if you’re queer. But I like to think that sexuality is like a playground, and you should feel free to explore the rides.”
