Biography
Peter Hujar was an American photographer born in 1934 in New Jersey, known for his black and white portraits. He received his first camera at the age of 13 and later enrolled at New York’s School of Industrial Art to pursue photography. He developed his technical skills in commercial photo studios and by 23 was producing some of his finest pieces.
In the late 60s, Hujar’s work was heavily inspired by his homosexual identity and the movement of gay liberation, and he went on to shoot portraits of New York’s bohemian world, many of his photographs admired for their unashamed homoeroticism and raw intimacy.
After passing away in 1987 at the hands of the New York AIDS epidemic, the first retrospective of Peter’s work was held in Amsterdam in 1994, and he became posthumously recognised as one of America’s major photographers of the late-20th century.
Nationality