Reading | Spätschicht x C/O Berlin
The Wonderful World That Almost Was
Andrew Durbin
Andrew Durbin © photo: Suzannah Pettigrew
As part of Spätschicht x C/O Berlin, Andrew Durbin, writer and editor-in-chief of frieze magazine, presents a lecture and slideshow drawn from his forthcoming book, The Wonderful World That Almost Was: A Life of Paul Thek and Peter Hujar, about the queer lives and histories that Peter Hujar documented, especially in the 1960s and 1970s.
Throughout his artistic life, the photographer Peter Hujar documented all aspects of queer life – from the intimacies of the bedroom to the backstage of New York City’s experimental theatres to the cruising grounds of Manhattan’s west side. This lecture asks what it might have felt like to capture the rapturous joy and nervous energy of the immediate aftermath of the Stonewall Uprising. What was it like to witness the smouldering sensuality of the men who frequented the Christopher Street pier?
A 20-minute Q&A will follow the one-hour lecture.
Andrew Durbin is the author of The Wonderful World That Almost Was: A Life of Paul Thek and Peter Hujar (FSG and Granta, April 2026). He is the editor-in-chief of frieze magazine and lives in London, UK.
During the event, photographs and video recordings may be made in which you may be recognisable. By attending, you consent to these recordings being used to communicate the event or exhibition.