Peter Hujar

Peter Hujar is best known for stark black-and-white portraits of artists, performers, and friends in downtown New York. His 1976 book Portraits in Life and Death included an introduction by Susan Sontag.

Hujar photographed figures connected to the East Village and queer artistic circles, including Candy Darling and David Wojnarowicz. Candy Darling on Her Deathbed from 1973 is one of his most recognized images.

Both worked with portraiture and queer New York culture, but Hujar's pictures often feel quieter and less polished than Mapplethorpe's studio classicism. Hujar's reputation is closely tied to intimate black-and-white work made before his death in 1987.

Hujar died of AIDS-related illness in 1987, and his work is often discussed alongside the losses in New York's art communities during that decade. His relationship with artist David Wojnarowicz also shaped how later viewers read his photographs.