Peter Hujar,Candy Darling on her Deathbed, 1973, digital pigment print, 20″ x 16″.

“Peter Hujar: Lost Downtown” opens this Thursday at Paul Kasmin Gallery. The exhibition chronicles Hujar’s time on the Lower East Side between 1972 and 1985, when he photographed his friends and acquaintances, including Susan Sontag, John Waters, Andy Warhol, David Wojnarowicz, Paul Thek, Edwin Denby, Divine, Fran Lebowitz, and William Burroughs. “There was something about him that invited a personal intimacy,” the writer Vince Aletti said of Hujar, who died in 1987. “He was very allowing. He allowed people to be themselves.” Hujar’s photos are on view through February 27. 

John Waters (I), 1975, vintage gelatin silver print, 20″ x 16″.

Susan Sontag, 1975, vintage gelatin silver print, 19 7/8″ x 15 7/8″.

Paul Thek (II), 1975, digital pigment print, 20″ x 16″.

Vince Aletti, 1975, vintage gelatin silver print, 20″ x 16″.

Larry Ree Backstage, c. 1973. vintage gelatin silver print, 20″ x 16″.

John Heys in Lana Turner Dress #1, 1979, vintage gelatin silver print, 20″ x 16″.

Fran Lebowitz [at Home in Morristown], 1974, vintage gelatin silver print, 16 3/4″ x 13 1/2″.

Andy Warhol (III), 1975, vintage gelatin silver print, 20″ x 16″.

David Wojnarowicz, 1981, digital pigment print, 20″ x 16″.