Introduction by Jeffrey Fraenkel. Text by Vince Aletti, Stephen Koch. Interview with Fran Lebowitz.
Celebrated and revered by artists, the work of Peter Hujar remains something of a public secret, but his photographs dealing with sex and eroticism, made between the years 1969 and 1986, have come to define a certain era in New York. Today they are widely considered to be his finest and most radical work. Hujar’s view of the human body is uninhibited and uncompromising, but his poignant explorations of sexuality and desire also project a universal humanity; as Nan Goldin said of Hujar’s nudes, "Looking at his photographs of nude men, even of a naked baby boy, is the closest I ever came to experience what it is to inhabit male flesh." This monograph, published in conjunction with an exhibition at Fraenkel Gallery in San Francisco, is the first to deal specifically with Hujar’s photographs of love and lust. Captured in deeply textured black and white, these photographs present a view of human relationships that encompasses both the tender and taboo. This volume also contains an interview with author Fran Lebowitz from 1989, and newly commissioned essays by Vince Aletti and Stephen Koch. Peter Hujar (1934–1987) was born in Trenton, New Jersey and moved to Manhattan to work in the magazine, advertising and fashion industries. He documented the vibrant cultural scene of downtown New York throughout the 1970s and 1980s. In 1976, he published Portraits in Life and Death, with an introduction by Susan Sontag. Hujar died of AIDS in 1987.
Featured image, "Couples for New York Scenes, Michael Fajans and Sheila Raj" (1969), is reproduced from Peter Hujar: Love & Lust.
PRAISE AND REVIEWS
Document
Helen Molesworth
What Hujar captures is the moment of the ego's suspension, in pleasure, through eros, via love.
Featured image, "Felix, Clyde, Ronnie, and Manny" (1976), is reproduced from Peter Hujar: Love & Lust, released just last week and already one of the most coveted books on our list this season. In a moving 1989 conversation with Peter Sokolowski, published inside the book, Fran Lebowitz describes Hujar. "He was an insider. What connects all his photographs is that every single person he photographed, every single person that he was interested in, each of his friends, was a misfit. That’s why those pictures are inside. It’s true of the children; it’s true of the drag queens. For someone who had so much distance in real life, Peter had no distance from his subjects. There’s no irony in his photographs, there’s no contempt, there’s no slumming, there’s no . . . curiosity. He was not curious about those people; he was not judgmental the way I am." continue to blog
FORMAT: Slip, Pbk, 11 x 14 in. / 82 pgs / 36 tritone. LIST PRICE: U.S. $45.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $55 ISBN: 9781881337379 PUBLISHER: Fraenkel Gallery AVAILABLE: 2/28/2014 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: No longer our product AVAILABILITY: Not available TERRITORY: WORLD
Published by Fraenkel Gallery. Introduction by Jeffrey Fraenkel. Text by Vince Aletti, Stephen Koch. Interview with Fran Lebowitz.
Celebrated and revered by artists, the work of Peter Hujar remains something of a public secret, but his photographs dealing with sex and eroticism, made between the years 1969 and 1986, have come to define a certain era in New York. Today they are widely considered to be his finest and most radical work. Hujar’s view of the human body is uninhibited and uncompromising, but his poignant explorations of sexuality and desire also project a universal humanity; as Nan Goldin said of Hujar’s nudes, "Looking at his photographs of nude men, even of a naked baby boy, is the closest I ever came to experience what it is to inhabit male flesh." This monograph, published in conjunction with an exhibition at Fraenkel Gallery in San Francisco, is the first to deal specifically with Hujar’s photographs of love and lust. Captured in deeply textured black and white, these photographs present a view of human relationships that encompasses both the tender and taboo. This volume also contains an interview with author Fran Lebowitz from 1989, and newly commissioned essays by Vince Aletti and Stephen Koch.
Peter Hujar (1934–1987) was born in Trenton, New Jersey and moved to Manhattan to work in the magazine, advertising and fashion industries. He documented the vibrant cultural scene of downtown New York throughout the 1970s and 1980s. In 1976, he published Portraits in Life and Death, with an introduction by Susan Sontag. Hujar died of AIDS in 1987.
