Peter Hujar’s Day Details the Minutiae of One Artist’s Life—and Captures the Living Spirit of New York

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New Yorkers who remember the 1970s and 80s often warn against idealizing that time – affordable housing often came with serious drawbacks, and crime was a constant concern. Still, it’s easy to be captivated by the New York City depicted in Ira Sachs’ film, Peter Hujar’s Day. Though subtle and understated during the viewing, the film lingers in your mind afterward. It’s set entirely within a comfortable apartment on a single day in 1974, and it perfectly captures the spirit of the city, both past and present. Anyone who has wandered the streets at night, admiring the old apartment buildings and wondering about the lives lived within their walls, will recognize the feeling this film evokes. Peter Hujar’s Day beautifully portrays the way the past seems to subtly connect with the present, as if the city is filled with echoes of those who came before.

New York City is known for its lively conversations, and that energy comes through in Peter Hujar’s Day. The film’s script is based on a lengthy, informal interview writer Linda Rosenkrantz conducted with photographer Peter Hujar in 1974. Rosenkrantz had planned a whole book of interviews with people in her life, documenting their daily routines, but the project was never completed. The original interview tapes with Hujar were lost for years, but were eventually published as a book in 2022. Sachs’ script draws directly from these tapes, capturing a spontaneous flow of casual conversation, name-dropping, and fleeting ideas that somehow all connect beautifully.

Ben Whishaw portrays Hujar, a talented photographer who supplemented his artistic work with commercial jobs to make ends meet. Rebecca Hall plays Rosenkrantz, an actress who radiates energy even in stillness. She doesn’t interrogate Hujar, but rather listens intently as he shares a flood of details – often small, everyday occurrences – that he remembers with remarkable clarity, like a photograph etched in his mind.

Hujar’s day begins with a visit from an editor at Elle magazine, who’s coming to collect a photograph—Hujar hopes to finally get paid for it. He briefly imagines a playful scenario with the editor before shifting his focus. Later, he has a significant assignment: photographing Allen Ginsberg for the New York Times. But before all that, he takes a couple of naps, jokingly insisting the first wasn’t a nap at all, but a continuation of his sleep—a clever excuse. As portrayed by Whishaw, Hujar is captivating and sensual, a charming and witty observer of the often-ordinary, yet strangely glamorous, life of an artist. He embraces everything that comes his way.

Hujar and Rosencrantz spend the day and evening chatting, effortlessly name-dropping the artists and personalities of their New York scene – figures like Robert Wilson, Peter Orlovsky, and Tuli Kupferberg. While some of these individuals are still well-known, others have faded from memory, and Peter Hujar’s Day lovingly brings them back into focus. As their conversation flows, the light in the room shifts from bright sunshine to the soft glow of late afternoon, mirroring the changing moods of the two friends. Their ‘costumes’ seem to change too, not through actual outfit changes, but through the natural digressions and shifts in topic that characterize a long, rambling conversation – just like how our clothes reflect our inner selves. Hujar and Rosencrantz share a comfortable, easy friendship, and at one point they relax on a bed, playfully tangled together like bear cubs. Sachs and his actors beautifully capture the feeling of those carefree, affectionate friendships we experience when we’re young and beautiful, perhaps resembling Adam and Eve before the fall, before awareness of sex and shame entered their lives.

I remember being struck by a photograph a few years back – a really powerful, almost unsettling image of a man. It ended up on the cover of Hanya Yanagihara’s A Little Life, which was everywhere – airports, trains, just people reading it on the street. It turns out that photo was taken by Peter Hujar, a photographer I hadn’t known before. He passed away in 1987 at just 53, sadly from AIDS. He wasn’t a household name, but his work, especially his beautiful black-and-white portraits, really captured the energy of New York in the 70s and 80s. That particular photo, “Orgasmic Man,” from 1969, is incredibly striking – it feels like you’re seeing someone caught between intense pain and something almost spiritual. It’s amazing how a single image can suddenly introduce you to an artist you didn’t know, and that’s exactly what happened with Hujar for me.

Peter Hujar’s Day offers a new perspective on the life of Peter Hujar. The film keenly observes the challenges and joys of living in New York City. Sachs’s 2014 film, Love Is Strange, follows an elderly married couple (John Lithgow and Alfred Molina) who must live apart due to financial difficulties, forcing them to sell their simple, artistic apartment. It’s a story about love, New York, and the realities of real estate—and how the city can be both beautiful and frustrating, sometimes within the same day. Peter Hujar’s Day is both more imaginative and grounded. It portrays a New York where the past persistently shapes the present, even as buildings change and familiar places disappear. You can sense this history in every corner of the city, as countless people share the details of their everyday lives. The film asks us to consider what we’re truly made of—are we something grand, like stardust, or simply the sum of our ordinary actions? Perhaps the two are inseparable.

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2025-11-07 17:10