Origins of the word “queer” are unclear, however, by the late 19th century “queer” was used as a pejorative to describe gay men (Jones). It was not until the sixties and seventies when Gay liberationists started to reclaim the word from its offensive past as a positive self-description (Jones). Later, in the nineties, “Queer began to be used in a different way again: not as a synonym for gay, but as a critical and political identity that challenged normative ideas about sexuality and gender” (Jones). This is when Queer theory and Queer theory in art emerged. Queer theory in the realm of art explores how artworks can be perceived and analyzed through a perspective that questions conventional ideas of gender and sexuality. The photographer Peter Hujar (1934-1987) was a prominent figure in New York’s queer art scene starting from the late sixties to the early eighties (The Art Story). While much of Hujar’s subject matter varied, some of Hujar’s most famous portraits showcased the queer community in a way that had not ever been shown. Peter Hujar’s photography challenges dominant narratives of gender norms and creates alternative ways of understanding and representing queer identities and love.

Up until the eighties in New York (and many other cities across the country) to be outwardly queer was illegal. Laws prohibiting same sex relations and lack of laws prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation forced many individuals in the community to live double lives. The LGBTQ+ community has always faced prejudice and, at times, violence for authentically being themselves, which resulted in much of the queer community feeling the need to “hide” themselves to not feel threatened.

The focus that Peter Hujar gives to the expressions and physical movements of his subjects leads to “a body language and a gaze that register a certain kind of comfort with seeing and being seen for how one really is” (Adams 322-323). In Hujar’s black and white portrait, David Brintzenhofe #7, Smoking (fig.1), Brintzenhofe is dressed in drag with a full face of make- up, wearing an off the shoulder ruffled ivory blouse with a large multi-layered clear acrylic necklace and matching earrings. Brintzenhofe is holding a cigarette and blowing smoke out of his mouth while looking directly into the camera. The composition of this portrait is tight, David Brintzenhofe takes up the entire frame. His eye contact is strong and straightforward. In this portrait, Hujar has captured David Brintzenhofe strong and confident with an at-ease energy. It is clear that in Brintzenhofe’s portrait he is comfortable with being seen and I get the sense that he is even daring me to look at him. There is no sense of “hiding” in this portrait. In a time where both Hujar and Brintzenhofe could have been legally persecuted for being a part of this marginalized community, this portrait shows zero fear.

Figure 1. Peter Hujar. *David Brintzenhofe #7, Smoking. 1983.*

In another up-close portrait of Brintzenhofe titled, David Brintzenhofe Applying Makeup (fig.2), Brintzenhofe is shown at profile view with eye make-up and lipstick on his lips while he is holding a wand up to his eyebrow. His profile emerges from the black background and his face and the activity of him applying his make-up is the main subject of this photograph. Brintzenhofe is fully immersed in his make-up application and as a viewer I feel like a fly on the wall witnessing this fleeting moment. This portrait of David Brintzenhofe gives the viewer a front row seat to the transformation of a man into drag. Adams comments on the intimacy of this transformation portraits in his essay:

Figure 2. Peter Hujar. *David Brintzenhofe Applying Makeup.* 1982.

In the drag portraits, Hujar is less interested in showing drag queens performing and posing (though sometimes he does emphasize this), and more interested in the person behind the persona, or the process of staging a performance rather than the performance itself. Hujar wants to show his sitters as metaphorically naked – down to the “bone”. The star studio environment that serves as the setting for the photographs, rather than the oneiric spaces of nightclubs or the theater, helps to evoke this stripped-down, disarmed sense of self evinced by the portraits” (Adams 326).

Through this portrait, Hujar complicates masculinity by showcasing the man behind the persona and is challenging traditional conceptions of gender identity. In this portrait Hujar blurs the lines of what it means to be masculine and feminine. This is another portrait of Brintzenhofe where he takes up the entire frame which alludes to the viewer that he is an important enough subject to have the agency to have the focus of a portrait solely on him.

The importance of these two portraits showcasing David Brintzenhofe confident and at ease is crucial not just for the marginalized individuals at the time that the portraits were taken, but for generations to come. Showing a man transform himself into drag in such an intimate setting gives force to the ceremony. There is a subtle seriousness to the portraits and a sensitivity that can be felt while digesting the details of the subject. There is no underlying fetishizing or mocking undertones. The portraits were a defiant step in the opposite direction of what traditional gender identity and beauty standards were at the time. I can see how these portraits along with many other photographs of the queer community that Hujar took empowered the community in a way that felt pure and genuine. Hujar provided space for people who were on the margins of society to feel safe and seen by photographing them as they were.

Peter Hujar photographed people as they were, and his photographs depicted a human desire for connection. Hujar’s photographs offered an alternative way of understanding passion and love. In Jay and Fernando (Two Men in Leather Kissing) (fig.3), the two men in the photo are gridlocked in a passionate kiss with their eyes closed. One of the men is gripping onto the other’s face. The composition of the photo is a close, tight knit diagonal shot with a neutral background. This photograph could have been taken in a studio or anywhere with a bare wall. The lack of an obvious studio setting suggests that this was a more in-the-moment shot, not something staged for the purpose of a photograph. It’s crucial to highlight that this photograph was captured in the sixties, a time when men could face imprisonment for having relations with one another. Nevertheless, in whatever location this photograph was taken, Jay and Fernando opted to express their affection, despite the potential consequences. Not only did Hujar capture a passionate moment between two people but there is also a theme of bravery within this portrait, as well.

In Jay and Fernando (Two Men in Leather Kissing) (fig.3) Peter Hujar deconstructs the idea of romance and intimacy only being possible between a man and a woman. There is so much passion between the two men, and this portrait shows that this passion can and does exist. It forces the viewer to ask themselves, who is allowed to feel this passion? Am I allowed? And what does this type of passion look like to me? The purpose intended behind this portrait is not to try and promote same sex relations but to dare the viewer to think outside of the square box that society has drawn up and to understand that passion and intimacy does not fit neatly into a box, it can look and feel and be experienced with whoever and however one decides it to be for themselves. In Harrison Adams essay, “Shamelessness Without Shame” he touches on Hujar’s work “zooming in” on moments like the one captured in Jay and Fernando (Two Men in Leather Kissing), “Hujar’s photography zooms in on the moment of shame, gay or otherwise, to test whether viewers can overcome their embarrassment at the sight of someone (or something) else’s vulnerability or their own” (Adams 349). The act of showing intimacy with one another, especially at a time when you could be persecuted for it could warrant a sense of shame, but the portrait of Jay and Fernando kissing shows an act of pride. The themes of this portrait are layered and the longer one sits with this photograph to take it all in, slowly the layers reveal themselves and the deconstruction of one’s own personal beliefs and the traditional beliefs that society has placed upon its individuals start to occur.

Figure 3. Peter Hujar. Jay and Fernando (Two Men in Leather Kissing). 1966.

Deconstruction is a major underlying theme of Hujar’s photographs. While his ability as an artist is so strong, it could be hard to miss what other messages his photographs convey due to being distracted by the obvious beauty of the composition and lighting.

Figure 4. Peter Hujar. Candy Darling on Her Deathbed. 1974.

An example of this can be seen in the portrait he took of his friend, Candy Darling. In this powerful photograph, Candy Darling on Her Deathbed (fig.4), Candy is in full drag laying in bed on her side with bouquets of flowers sprinkled around her bed. There is a single stemmed flower placed in the front of her. Candy looks stunning and is reminiscent of a theater star after a great performance or a silent film actress waiting for her cue. But once the viewer starts to look more closely, one detects an overhead light that hangs over the bed, as well as the corner of a hospital tray table that one of the bouquets of flowers is sitting on. Then, it all starts to connect that Candy Darling is in a hospital, literally, on her deathbed. This portrait was made at Candy’s invitation and captures her in the hospital at the end of her life dying of lymphoma (St. Louis Art Museum). This portrait is powerful as it, “...unflinchingly confronts her pain and the inevitability of mortality with his own characteristic precision and humanity” (St. Louis Art Museum). In this portrait Hujar captures Candy Darling, a pioneering transgender woman at the

end of her life in such a beautiful, honest way. Candy is on her deathbed and mustered up the energy to put herself together in a way that felt most pure to herself. To capture this photograph of Candy lying in her deathbed and her choosing to make herself up in this way shows that her life was not a performance. Dressing in women’s clothes and wearing a full face of make-up was not a performative act, it was true to who she was and this portrait by Hujar lovingly proves it.

Since the inception of photography, images have served as a documentation of cultural and societal history. The power a photographer possesses is to have the ability to present precisely what they wish others to view, what they deem significant, and what they regard as beautiful. Peter Hujar was unwavering in capturing what he, himself, deemed beautiful. And while at the time he was respected and well known among his own community, he did not gain the recognition that he is now presently receiving. During the time that Hujar was working, he was a part of an outlier community, and he was a confident enough artist to not seek outside of himself or his community to gain commercial success.

So much in the world has changed since the time of Hujar’s photographs were taken and one may wonder, how these portraits from over fifty years ago resonate with today’s generation? While there are many answers to this question, one of the most obvious answers is that today’s generation is finally at place of willing to accept and embrace the deconstruction of dominant gender norms and alternative ways of understanding love and desire. Peter Hujar is not just a pioneer in the queer art space but in the field of photography as well. Hujar's art went beyond merely recording the queer community; it aimed to honor its variety, recognize its challenges, and inspire individuals to fully accept their identities. Peter Hujar observed the world around him and shared his vision through the medium of photography. He celebrated eccentrics and those who were outcasts of society. The work is not about defining a person’s gender or wanting to

make a clear statement (as you can see through the intimacy of his other photographs) but rather that he was waiting and wanting his subject to be themselves; and giving that agency to someone who has been marginalized in society, is extremely powerful and important. In a panel discussion with Pace Gallery, Peter Hujar’s longtime friend and director of the Peter Hujar Archive, Stephen Koch said, “He was the least political person that I ever met. We never talked about the Gay Liberation Movement” (Koch). Peter Hujar did not have to talk politics to prove his beliefs because the subject matter of his photographs spoke for him. Hujar’s photography challenged dominant narratives of gender norms and created alternative ways of understanding and representing queer identities and love.

Works Cited

Adams, Harrison. “Peter Hujar: Shamelessness Without Shame.” Criticism, vol. 63, no. 4, 2021, pp. 319–353, https://doi.org/https://muse.jhu.edu/article/842069.

“Candy Darling on Her Deathbed.” Saint Louis Art Museum, 8 Nov. 2024, www.slam.org/collection/objects/68292/.

Jones, Timothy W. “Reviled, Reclaimed and Respected: The History of the Word ‘Queer.’” The Conversation, 30 Jan. 2025, theconversation.com/reviled-reclaimed-and-respected-the- history-of-the-word-queer-197533.

Koch, Stephen, et al. “Cruising Utopia: A Conversation on Peter Hujar.” YouTube, Pace Gallery, 16 July 2020, www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJU5Xw-lZnw.

“Peter Hujar .” MoMa, 2024, www.moma.org/artists/7159-peter-hujar.
“The Peter Hujar Archive.” The Peter Hujar Archive , peterhujararchive.com/.

“Peter Hujar Paintings, Bio, Ideas.” The Art Story, www.theartstory.org/artist/hujar- peter/#:~:text=Summary%20of%20Peter%20Hujar,a%20truly%20rarefied%20print%20qu ality.