Peter Hujar - Böcker

The 1976 publication of Peter Hujar’s Portraits in Life and Death, with an introduction by Susan Sontag, “was and remains one of the most somberly beautiful and influential photography collections of its era” (Holland Cotter, senior art critic of The New York Times). When Hujar passed away in 1987, his work was relatively unknown except for a small following. The importance and artistic mastery of Hujar’s photography, its tender gravity and intimacy, became recognised and canonical only after his death. The republication of this collection is composed of the original introduction by Susan Sontag and preceded by a new foreword by Benjamin Moser, with photographs presented in two sequences. A stirring ode to the flourishing downtown scene of the 1970s, this collection remains a deeply moving artefact of post-Stonewall New York City.

Peter Hujar was a leading figure of the downtown New York scene of the 1970s and ’80s. He is most well-known for his portraits of New York City’s artists, musicians, writers, and performers, which feature characters such as Susan Sontag, William S. Burroughs, David Wojnarowicz, and Andy Warhol, and was admired for his completely uncompromising attitude toward work and life. Hujar was a consummate technician, and his portraits of people, animals, and landscapes, as well as his documentation of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, with its exquisite black-and-white tonalities, were extremely influential. Underappreciated during his lifetime, Hujar is now a revered icon of the lost downtown art scene, and his photographs are held in permanent collections around the world. Over 160 photographs are gathered in Peter Hujar: Survey . Published alongside a major touring exhibition, this collection presents Hujar’s famous portraiture as well as his lesser-known projects. Accompanied by texts by Philip Gefter, Steve Turtell, and Joel Smith, this survey provides a thorough history of Hujar’s life and artistic practice.