Hujar Contact

A compelling visual artefact celebrating New York artist PeterHujar’s life, career, and relationship with the communities hemoved and worked withinCollects never-before-seen highlights from Hujar’s archive of5,783 contact sheets, dating from 1954 to 1987 , with the jobbooks in which he recorded more than a thousand photoshoots,all contextualised by texts by Joel SmithReleased alongside the opening of the exhibition ‘Hujar:Contact’at the Morgan Library & Museum, New York, on show from 22May to 25 October 2026Hujar:Contact explores the Morgan Library & Museum’s extensive archive oforiginal contact sheets and job books made by the beloved photographer PeterHujar between 1954 and 1987 , which come together to form an enthralling visualdocument of the artist’s creative process. Hujar’s empathetic eye focused in onvarying subjects – crowds of protest, damaged relics, farm animals – but aboveall he was preoccupied with making portraits of the overlapping circles of artists,writers, and underground luminaries he moved within in New York. Accompanyingcritical texts by Joel Smith establish a chronology of Hujar’s contact sheets,presenting an artist developing, experimenting with, and refining his practiceagainst the tumultuous cultural politics and sea changes of gay life conveyed bythe words ‘Stonewall’ and ‘AIDS’.Throughout his career Hujar recorded more than a thousand photo shootsin his job books. These documents, which are transcribed and annotated inHujar:Contact, illuminate the contact sheets, rich in never-before-seen images aswell as the earliest iterations of Hujar’s most iconic works, including portraits ofSusan 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, throughphotography, with the creative communities that defined his life, outlook, and art.Co-published with the Morgan Library & Museum, New York, on the occasion ofthe exhibition ‘Hujar:Contact’, on show from 22 May–25 October 2026