CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 1/19/2023

Humanity, depth and insight in 'Peter Hujar Curated by Elton John'

Featured spreads are from Peter Hujar Curated by Elton John, Fraenkel Gallery's exquisitely produced monograph on the influential but (in his lifetime) underrecognized photographer who captured the downtown NYC demimonde in striking black-and-white from the age of twenty-three, in 1957, until his death from complications related to AIDS, in 1987, at the age of just fifty-three. Assembled by noted photography collector Elton John, this volume includes portraits of friends, lovers, performers, cultural figures, landscapes and animals. Pictured here: "Beauregard's Dog Pilar" (1983), "Ethyl Eichelberger as Auntie Belle Emme" (1979) and "June Newton, Paris" (1980). "Hujar's humanity, depth and sensual insight aren't for everyone, and don't need to be," Elton John writes, "but once his pictures get into your bloodstream they are impossible to shake."