“Peter Hujar lived in different worlds, he touched many people, and his work, like that of so few photographers, can’t be forgotten and becomes even deeper and more compelling over time. Peter’s work is not just photography – it’s about birth and death and the stages of life and varieties of identity and all the friends in-between.”
—Nan Goldin, Peter Hujar: A Retrospective, 1994A definitive photographer of his generation, Peter Hujar depicted the downtown, emerging gay culture of New York City throughout the 1970s and 80s. The present work shows a reclining man’s legs, one crossed over the other, on a bench at the Christopher Street Pier along the Hudson River, positioned right next to the cultural and artistic hub of Greenwich Village. Hujar’s bold composition against the river scene brings texture to this moment of respite amidst New York City life. Created as the AIDS epidemic began taking many lives, Hujar’s reclining portraits reflect the similitude between life and death. In the same year this image was taken, Hujar published the only book he would make during his lifetime, titled Portraits of Life and Death. Presented in timeless monochrome within his signature square format, we see here the attentive aesthetic applied to all Hujar’s subject matter.
As of this writing, this image exists as eight known lifetime prints that are held in various collections, including at the Morgan Library & Museum, New York, and as a sold-out posthumous edition of ten prints, printed by his friend and fellow artist Gary Schneider.