© All Images: The Peter Hujar Archive, Artists Rights Society
“When one has a picture taken, the photographer says ‘Perfect’ Just as you are! That is death.” …“LIfe is a movie. Death is a photograph.”–Susan Sontag
In 1976, Portraits in Life and Death, by the artist Peter Hujar was published. The book was not well received at that time, and Hujar, who was never commercially successful or as well known as some of his contemporaries in the downtown NYC scene (e.g. Robert Mapplethorpe), struggled to make a living. To be gay, an artist, poor and living a marginal lifestyle was possible in the NYC of the 1970’s and the 1980’s. Now I’m not so sure.
The original monograph published during his lifetime would go on to become posthumously, especially for photography collectors, a sought after classic. Some books do. Some work stands the test of time.
Now, Liveright Publishing/W.W. Norton & Company, nearly fifty years later, have graciously reissued Portraits in Life and Death for a 21st Century audience. With fresh digital scans from Hujar’s archive, a new essay by Pulitzer Prize winning author, Benjamin Moser along with Susan Sontag’s original introduction, this new publication is a fitting tribute to Peter Hujar’s legacy.
Appreciating Hujar’s work, today, requires intention. We are all simply overwhelmed, saturated even, with images. This monograph takes time. It must be slowly savored to respect the intimacy and the connection Hujar had with his subjects. The careful composition of the portraits. The atmosphere. The openness. The longing.
While the classical concept of memento mori shadows Hujar’s work, notably with his pictures at the Capuchin monastery in Palermo. To my mind–paradoxically–it illuminates more. I imagine this is why he included these earlier images in the book. It is through the acceptance of death, that we embrace life. Peter Hujar’s work remains powerful to us today because of this tension. His work, timeless and beautiful, connects us to both. –-Lane Nevares