Peter Hujar
Susan Sontag
1975
Peter Hujar, Susan Sontag, 1975. Photography, Pigmented ink print
Susan Sontag, the author of On Photography and Regarding the Pain of Others, was captured through Peter Hujar’s now-iconic photograph Susan Sontag in a relaxed yet pensive pose. A friend and supporter of his work as well as his subject, Sontag wrote the introduction for Hujar’s only book published during his lifetime: Portraits in Life and Death.
Before American photographer Peter Hujar passed away from AIDS in 1987, he was a part of a group of New York-based artists, writers, and musicians who defined the downtown scene in the 1970s. Often described as uncompromising in personality and aesethetic, Hujar’s black-and-white photographs captured landscapes, animals, and, most memorably, people.