Desi Boys: Soham Gupta’s vivid portraits of young men in Kolkata

This gallery is taken from the autumn 2025 issue of Dazed. Buy a copy of the magazine here.

The young men in Soham Gupta’s Desi Boys series represent a distinct style of Indian masculinity. Coming from a variety of religious and caste backgrounds, these boys pair bootleg Gucci with gold chains and ripped jeans; they bleach their hair and sport tattoos that peek out from loud shirts and leather jackets rolled up at the sleeves. Often from poor or marginalised communities, Gupta’s subjects have big dreams fuelled by the digital boom of the past decade, opening them up to a world of influences and employment opportunities.

Despite their sometimes intimidating exteriors, there’s a softness to the men in Gupta’s images – a tenderness in how they embrace, or smile when a besotted girl poses with them. For his ongoing series, the photographer spent long evenings with the boys on Kolkata’s street corners, sharing cigarettes, trading stories and taking photos that would end up on their social media a few days later. “They would ask if I knew hip hop and talk about their hero, [rapper] MC Stan,” says Gupta. “They are hooked on his songs because he’s a Muslim boy from Pune who made it big.”

There is a beauty and purpose to the desi boys’ attachment to hip hop and the fashion that accompanies it. At night the streets take on the transformative quality of a studio, a space for these young men to negotiate their identities on their own terms. “It’s like a performance,” says Gupta. “Not just for the camera, but for themselves. They’re performing gender roles and celebrating the everyday and their memories of being together.”