Hujar:Contact explores
the Morgan Library & Museum’s extensive archive of original contact
sheets and job books made by the beloved photographer Peter Hujar
between 1954 and 1986, which come together to form an enthralling visual
document of the artist’s creative process. Hujar’s empathetic eye
focused in on varying subjects – crowds of protest, damaged relics, farm
animals – but above all he was preoccupied with making portraits of the
overlapping circles of artists, writers, and underground luminaries he
moved within in New York. Accompanying critical texts by Joel Smith
establish a chronology of Hujar’s contact sheets, presenting an artist
developing, experimenting with, and refining his practice against the
tumultuous cultural politics and sea changes of gay life conveyed by the
words ‘Stonewall’ and ‘AIDS’.
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Throughout
his career Hujar recorded more than a thousand photo shoots in his job
books. These documents, transcribed and annotated by Olivia McCall,
illuminate the contact sheets, rich in never-before-seen images as well
as the earliest iterations of Hujar’s most iconic works, including
portraits of Susan Sontag, David Wojnarowicz, Candy Darling, Gary
Indiana, Fran Lebowitz, and Paul Thek. This volume provides captivating
insight into a master at work, forming an immersive chronicle of Hujar’s
poignant efforts to connect, through photography, with the creative
communities that defined his life, outlook, and art.
Co-published with the Morgan
Library & Museum, New York, on the occasion of the exhibition
‘Hujar:Contact’, on show from 22 May–25 October 2026
