Speed of Life

Peter Hujar: Speed of Life is the major touring survey of the New York photographer published by Aperture in 2017 to accompany the retrospective exhibition organized by Joel Smith at the Morgan Library & Museum and Fundación MAPFRE. Over 160 photographs gather Hujar's iconic portraits of the downtown New York artistic and underground community—Susan Sontag, William S. Burroughs, David Wojnarowicz, Andy Warhol, Candy Darling, and others—alongside his lesser-known studies of animals, landscapes, and the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Hujar (1934–1987), a leading figure of the 1970s and '80s downtown scene, was a consummate technician whose exquisite black-and-white tonalities and uncompromising attitude toward work and life made him profoundly influential, though he remained underappreciated in his lifetime. Critical essays by Philip Gefter, Steve Turtell, and Joel Smith establish a thorough chronology of Hujar's biography and artistic practice. The exhibition traveled internationally, with stops in Madrid, Paris, New York, and Berkeley.