Antony skriver om Peter Hujar

I går åpnet en retrospektiv utstilling av Peter Hujar i ICA i London. Den varer til 27. januar. Se for deg et skittent nedre Manhatten med transer i svart-hvitt, bare som en overskrift, bare for at du skal skjønne sånn omtrent hvor vi er.

Til høyre her er et selvportrett av Peter Hujar.
På sidene til Institute of Contemporary Arts skriver de,

This is the first UK retrospective for Peter Hujar, one of the most important American photographers of the 70s and early 80s, whose work shows the life of New York at a time when the city was financially impoverished but artistically rich.

Hujar, who died in 1987, is most associated with his black-and-white portraits of the city's avant-garde stars.

Hujar's studio portraits reflect his background in fashion photography.
He first made a name for himself with his male nudes and portraits from the gay scene, and this exhibition contains a number of portraits of transvestite performers such as Divine and Candy Darling.

Wiki på Candy Darling
Norsk wiki på Divine
I skrivende stund en kort wiki på Peter Hujar

Dette fotografiet som Peter Hujar tok av Candy Darling var på Antony and the Johnsons cover til I`m a bird now.

The exhibition also includes photographs of New York itself, including haunting images of the abandoned streets of Downtown Manhattan at night.
Hujar's work received little recognition during his lifetime, but was an important influence on Nan Goldin and Robert Mapplethorpe, among others.

Jeg har skrevet dette om Robert Mapplethorpe og Patti Smith

På Nan Goldins wiki står det i skrivende stund bl.a dette,

"Goldin hadde en omflakkende barndom, og bodde hos flere forskjellige fosterfamilier. Hun ble introdusert til fotografi da hun var 15 år av en lærer på en skole i Boston. De første fotografiene hun viste frem var fra det homoseksuelle og transvestittmiljøet i Boston. Etter eksamen flyttet hun til New York City, hvor hun først begynte å fotografere undergrunns-musikkmiljøer i storbyen. Etterhvert ble hun en del av et narkotikamiljø som utviklet seg i nabolaget Bowery på Manhattan."

En av mine helter, Antony Hegarty fra Antony and the Johnsons har skrevet i The Guardian om Peter Hujar. Det var jo dette jeg egentlig hadde tenkt å skrive om. Sånn kan det gå, det ene ordet tar det andre, den ene lenken osv. Her skriver i alle fall Antony Hegarty.

In the 1970s and 80s, Peter Hujar photographed New York and its underground elite.

In one of his most iconic portraits,
and the one I was lucky enough to procure as the cover for my last [Antony And The Johnsons] album, I Am A Bird Now, Candy Darling lies in her hospital bed, dying of leukaemia, her dark eyes gazing hypnotically at the camera from underneath white sheets. She looks transcendental in her beauty, suspended between male and female, light and shadow, life and death. When I visited the executor of Hujar's estate, I was shown images he had taken at Darling's funeral. The Warhol superstar was laid out in an open casket, her body waxen and besieged with flowers. Hujar obsessively circled this theme of death and the passage of time - in his picture of a cat's corpse as it curled into death, decomposing on the dark grey gravel; in the silhouette of a thin, neglected dog as it sat chained up in a kennel; even in a solitary bush as it grew, thick with fresh leaves, imbued with an elusive radiance.

Hujar was respected by his peers and revered by those who took inspiration from him (Nan Goldin among them). In the art world he was marginalised, known for being volatile and at times uncooperative. He lived without assets, sometimes without enough money to eat. He died in 1987. His lover, David Wojnarowicz, took photographs of his body as it lay on the hospital cot: Hujar's face, frozen in a stark and rapturous expression; his foot; his hand; his body lay there bathed in the neon light of the hospital corridor.


Her er Susan Sontag, fra utstillingen i London.
Jeg har skrevet om henne, bl.a her.

Hva mer?

Antony lager musikkvideo med Bjørk for tiden, til Dull Flame of Desire.

Lyden av den


Antony selv lager ny plate som kommer til våren,
den heter The Crying Light.


Her er Antony i desembernummeret av Harp Magazine.
I skrivende øyeblikk er ikke desembernummeret lagt ut på nett ennå ser det ut til, men det må da komme hvert øyeblikk.