16 Facts About Peter Hujar

Peter Hujar was an American photographer best known for his black-and-white portraits.

Peter Hujar was born on October 11,1934, in Trenton, New Jersey, to Rose Murphy, a waitress, who was abandoned by her husband during her pregnancy.

Peter Hujar was raised by his Ukrainian grandparents on their farm, where he spoke only Ukrainian until he started school.

Peter Hujar remained on the farm until his grandmother's death in 1946, and his mother took him to New York City to live with her and her second husband in their one-room apartment.

The household was abusive, and in 1950, when Peter Hujar was 16, he left home and began to live independently.

Peter Hujar received his first camera in 1947 and in 1953 entered the School of Industrial Art where he expressed interest in being a photographer.

Peter Hujar encountered an encouraging teacher, the poet Daisy Aldan, and following her advice he became a commercial photography apprentice.

In 1958, Peter Hujar accompanied the artist Joseph Raffael on a Fulbright to Italy.

In 1964, Peter Hujar returned to America and became a chief assistant in the studio of the commercial photographer Harold Krieger.

Peter Hujar quit his job in commercial photography in 1967, and at great financial sacrifice, began to pursue primarily his own art work that reflected his homosexual milieu.

Peter Hujar was an influential artist-activist of the gay liberation movement; in 1969, with his lover, the political activist Jim Fouratt, he witnessed the Stonewall riots in the West Village.

Peter Hujar transformed the space in such a way that he could live and work there for the rest of his life.

Peter Hujar remained instrumental in all phases of Wojnarowicz's emergence as an important young artist.

Peter Hujar had a wide array of subjects in his photography, including cityscapes and urban still lifes, animals, nudes, abandoned buildings, and European ruins.

That's what Peter Hujar wanted and that was his great, great talent and skill.

Peter Hujar's funeral was held at Church of St Joseph in Greenwich Village, and he was buried at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Valhalla, New York.