Peter Hujar was born in 1934 in Trenton, New Jersey, and raised in poverty before making his way to New York City as a young man. He went on to become one of the most important photographers of the 20th century: revered by anyone who cared seriously about the medium, but largely unknown outside it.
His black-and-white portraits have a quality that is almost impossible to fake: a stillness and intimacy suggesting the subject has genuinely allowed themselves to be seen. Susan Sontag wrote the introduction to his 1976 book Portraits in Life and Death. His influence on photographers including Nan Goldin has been immense. He died of AIDS in 1987, aged 53.
