Peter Hujar

the long version

Peter Hujar, a New Yorker of Ukrainian descent, died of AIDS in 1987. He recorded the world in astonishing portraits of cows, sheep, and geese in the country, dogs in the studio, the sea, the city, and above all his fellow human beings, many of whom have since won fame: Susan Sontag, John Waters, Divine, William S. Borroughs, Candy Darling, Robert Wilson, David Wojnarowicz, Paul Thek, and many men, in the nude, half-dressed, sleeping, posing, tumescent. People, animals, landscapes - Peter Hujar approached them all with great respect and a perfect sense of balance between near and far. His subjects face us with supremely dignified singularity, with loneliness at times, and at times in an aura of dauntless and "splendid isolation."