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Portrait of a man
pt 9
(Peter Hujar)

David Wojnarowicz, portrait of his lover.

"There's always some shadows within the prettiest of scenes
I'll cast one on you, and you'll cast one on me…
That’s alright if this is the closest we will ever be.”

lyric by Ola Podrida

"In the late seventies and early eighties, Peter Hujar (1934–1987) roamed the no-man's-lands of downtown New York after-hours: an empty corner of Leroy Street (now home to Federal Express and just down the block from Gavin Brown's gallery), the silent meatpacking district, seedy swaths of the waterfront known only to cruisers like himself. He also turned his camera on fellow nightcrawlers, from his lover David Wojnarowicz to the girl he found slumped in his hallway. Hujar’s more formal studio portraits of Susan Sontag, Candy Darling, and other bohemian cohorts inspired Nan Goldin and Robert Mapplethorpe, but his contribution to the subgenre of New York street photography that consists of night shots—long dominated by the more sensational Weegee—is only beginning to emerge. Today, as the cobblestones teem with tourists and Wall Streeters, Hujar’s nocturnal city looks improbably desolate, like the long-exposure streetscapes of the earliest photographers."

taken from here.

I need another place
Will there be peace
I need another world
This one's nearly gone
Still have to many dreams
Never seen the light
I need another world

-Anthony Hegarty.

self portrait...




"Mainly a portrait photographer, he also photographed an array of subjects from farm animals to nudes. He also turned his camera on fellow nightcrawlers who inhabited the East Village art scene of the late 70s and 80s. His most famous photograph is possibly, "Candy Darling on Her Deathbed". His now infamous book, entitled Portraits in Life and Death (1976), is quite the collector's item. Peter Hujar was a long term partner of artist David Wojnarowicz, who died with AIDS in 1992. Hujar died of AIDS complications in 1987."

more here..

Divine

"Hujar was respected by his peers and revered by those who took inspiration from him (Nan Goldin among them). In the art world he was marginalised, known for being volatile and at times uncooperative. He lived without assets, sometimes without enough money to eat. He died in 1987. His lover, David Wojnarowicz, took photographs of his body as it lay on the hospital cot: Hujar's face, frozen in a stark and rapturous expression; his foot; his hand; his body lay there bathed in the neon light of the hospital corridor."

Anthony Hegarty.

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