Peter Hujar 1934 - 1987
American, Photographer

Hujar was born in 1934 in Trenton , New Jersey and died of AIDS in New York in 1987. On moving to Manhattan he became a photographer working for magazines, advertising and the fashion industry. At the end of the 1960's he opened his own studio and developed an ever more radical approach to photography. Mainly a portraitist, he photographed the celebrities and denizens of Downtown New York in the 70s and 80s. They included one of his lovers, David Wojnarowicz, and Candy Darling, Susan Sontag, William Borroughs, Divine, Charles Ludlam, Ethyl Eichelberger and John Heys. His black and white photography are singularly pure, reduced to the essence of the sitters, elegantly capturing their style, presence, and poise.

Peter Weiermair, Peter Hujar, Allerheiligenpresse, 1981.

Klaus Kertess, Peter Hujar. Animals and Nudes. Twin Palms Publishers, 2002.

Max Kozloff, Hujar, Artforum (Oct. 1990) 156-62.

David Joselit, The Power of the Portraitist, Art in America (v. 78, September 1990) 180-3.

Nan Goldin, Peter Hujar, Parkett (no. 44, 1995) 15-22.