Peter Hujar's Contact Sheets, Filed and Sorted

May 25. Mack Books releases Peter Hujar: Contact Sheets, a document of 5,783 contact sheets stored in eight banker boxes at the Morgan Library & Museum. The sheets span Hujar's photographic life, from early work in the 1950s through his death in 1987. Each sheet is sleeved in plastic, sorted vertically like office files. Nothing precious about the storage.

The book follows the sheets chronologically. Hujar's subjects appear frame by frame: David Wojnarowicz in multiple poses, Paul Thek mid-gesture, Susan Sontag in profile, then again in profile. The contact sheet format shows the work before the edit. What didn't make the print. What got cropped. What got reframed.

A concurrent exhibition at Pace Gallery, New York, pairs the contact sheets with finished prints. The pairing makes the distance visible. Hujar shot wide, cropped tight. He worked in series, not singles. The sheets show a photographer circling a subject, adjusting, returning.

The Morgan acquired the contact sheets as part of its Hujar archive. The book reproduces a selection, not the full 5,783. Mack's design keeps the grid intact. Each page holds one sheet, the frames legible but small. The reader sees what Hujar saw in the darkroom: options, not outcomes.

Hujar's work has been institutionalized steadily since his death. This release adds process to the record. The contact sheet is the photographer's sketchbook. Hujar's sheets read methodical, patient. He knew which frame he wanted before he printed it.