A snapshot of the bohemian downtown: Peter Hujar’s early photography on show in New York

‘Peter Hujar lived in the Ukrainian neighbourhood in New York, yet few Ukrainian-Americans knew about him or his work,’ says Peter Doroshenko, director of The Ukrainian Museum in New York, where there is currently an exhibition covering the first 15 years of the artist’s career. ‘Focusing on his early work, it was important to show Hujar's three important series of photographs, because he used these groups of images as a foundation for his later portraiture and other varied work. There have been important Peter Hujar exhibitions over the past thirty years, but never focusing on his formative years.’

Three bodies of work created in the 1950s and 1960s are the focus of Peter Hujar: Rialto, with many photographs from Southbury (1957), Florence (1958), and the Capuchin Catacombs of Palermo (1963) previously unseen. Also on view are Hujar’s black and white portraits of the characters who frequented bohemian downtown New York, including Iggy Pop and Janis Joplin.

Born to an immigrant family in New York, Hujar was raised by his Ukrainian grandmother, who spoke only the Ukrainian language to him for the first five years of his life. His later struggles with an unstable upbring led him to seek refuge in his photography, which he married with his immersion in the subcultures of New York where he felt most at home.

‘I believe that Hujar’s formal Ukrainian upbringing created various systems and control for his photographic work during his lifetime,’ Doroshenko adds. ‘Ukrainians are very critical and hard on themselves. Hujar had the same critical DNA with his use of the camera and later darkroom production. Peter Hujar lived and worked in one of the most active and creative epicentres of New York, yet he was ahead of his time in many ways.’

'Peter Hujar: Rialto’ is at The Ukrainian Museum, New York until 1 September 2024. See more New York exhibitions on now.

theukrainianmuseum.org