He only published one book – and it was hardly noticed. Now his portraits of drag queens, poets and artists are seen as vital documents of a vanished world. As they go on show, the photographer’s favourite subjects recall his genius

‘He made me wear white,” says Fran Lebowitz, down the phone from New York. The writer is talking about the day her close friend, the photographer Peter Hujar, shot her for Portraits in Life and Death, the only book he ever made. “Peter was very specific. It was in my apartment which was the size of, I don’t know, a book. And the light was a big thing – as it was with all photographers, back when they were actually photographers.”

This week, the picture of a 24-year-old Lebowitz smoking a cigarette, slightly slumped, in a white shirt and tight white trousers on the arm of a settee, goes on show at the Venice biennale, alongside the 40 other pictures from Portraits in Life and Death. Twenty-nine of them depict artists, writers and performers Hujar knew and admired from the downtown scene of 1970s New York – many of them reclining in a state of reverie that seems completely un-posed. There’s the writer Susan Sontag, supine on a bed with a pensive expression; the drag artist and underground film star Divine off duty and resting on some cushions; nightclub dancer TC, topless and drowsily seductive; poet and dance critic Edwin Denby with his eyes meditatively closed, his wrinkles mirroring the rumpled duvet behind him.

When Victoria Villegas learned how her cousin had fled the Dominican Republic, and was gay like her, she was moved to chart his life

There have been experimental, freestyling essay films and memoiristic documentaries around for years, going back to Chris Marker’s Sans Soleil or Agnès Varda’s The Gleaners and I. But just lately it feels like the sprawling poetic-realist subgenre is flourishing, especially in the sunny uplands of film festivals. Like an extension of the creative-writing exhortation to “write about what you know” young documentary-makers are increasingly shooting movies about not just who they are but also their family history. Sometimes family members are even corralled into play themselves or others, like some cinematic family drama-therapy experiment.

If you want a few recent examples, check out Miryam Charles’s recent Cette Maison, or Moroccan director Asmae el Moudir’s The Mother of All Lies, both of which recreate traumas from the directors’ family histories. Now add to that list this one, directed by Victoria Linares Villegas, a young Dominican film-maker who found out that her second cousin was Oscar Torres, a significant if now obscure film-maker who left the Dominican Republic not long after the military dictator Rafael Trujillo came to power in the 1930s, and then fled to Cuba to make leftist films celebrating the common man. Torres was also a film critic for a time, championing neo-realists such as Vittorio De Sica. Villegas sets to find and understand Oscar’s work, but also his more personal story – and about halfway through it emerges that he was bisexual, which resonates with Villegas, herself a lesbian.

In 1999, the Admiral Duncan pub in Soho was attacked in a campaign of violence by a self-confessed racist and homophobe. It completely changed the course of my life

On Saturday 17 April 1999, a bomb exploded in Brixton market in south London, injuring 48 people, including a 23-month-old child. Newspapers showed an X-ray of the toddler’s head with a nail embedded in the skull. Immediately, people knew that someone wanted to kill in an area that had a large Black community.

This was the first of three nailbombs that were planted in the capital targeting minorities. The following weekend, a second bomb exploded in the Bangladeshi area of Brick Lane. Thirteen people were injured; it might have been more if a passerby hadn’t spotted a suspicious bag and put it in the boot of his car, dampening the blast.

More than 40 locations across the US reported the backlash after rightwing account stokes anti-trans rhetoric about its rules

More than 40 Planet Fitness locations across the country have received bomb threats after a conservative movement against the gym’s trans-inclusive locker room policy went viral online.

In the weeks since the backlash against the gym chain started in March, at least 43 locations in Connecticut, Florida, Alabama and other states have received bomb threats, according to progressive media watchdog group Media Matters.

Paediatrician who led review of gender identity services says any new law must not create problems for professionals

Kemi Badenoch, the women and equalities minister, was warned about the risks of a planned ban on conversion practices by the doctor who reviewed gender identity services for under-18s.

Leading paediatrician Dr Hilary Cass said she had been “really clear” with the cabinet minister that any plans for a change in the law would have to avoid creating problems for professionals.

Katie Wood, a transgender algebra teacher, has long gone by ‘Ms Wood’ but the law required students to say ‘Teacher Wood’

Florida cannot prohibit a 10th-grade math teacher from asking her students to call her by her preferred pronouns, a federal judge has ruled.

The decision from Mark Walker, the US district judge, is a blow to an anti-LGBTQ law championed by Ron DeSantis, the state’s governor, which prohibits discussion of sexuality in public schools. A 2023 expansion of the measure, widely known as the “Don’t Say Gay” law, prohibits teachers and students from using pronouns that align with their gender identity.

Joewackle J Kusi was finishing his film Nyame Mma when an anti-LGBTQ+ bill was passed, bringing the threat of prosecution for those ‘promoting’ queer stories

A rare Ghanian film featuring a queer main character could not have been released at a worse time for its director and cast. Joewackle J Kusi was making finishing touches to his short film, Nyame Mma (Children of God), and arranging screenings in the capital, Accra, when a piece of legislation passed through Ghana’s parliament, targeting LGBTQ+ content.

According to the bill approved in late February, those involved in the “wilful promotion, sponsorship or support of LGBTQ+ activities” will face jail sentences of up to five years. The legislation, awaiting presidential endorsement before it becomes law, also stipulates a prison sentence of between six months and three years for those found guilty of identifying as LGBTQ+.

Booker-winning author says course ‘shouldn’t be seen as dispensable’ as university seeks to cut 130 academic jobs

The Booker prize-winning author Bernardine Evaristo has criticised the “amputation” of Black British literature and queer history courses at Goldsmiths University in London, as part of a cost-cutting programme in which 130 academic jobs are to go.

Evaristo, along with former students and writers, issued a plea to Goldsmiths to reconsider the removal of “pioneering” postgraduate courses after plans were announced to cut the jobs in 11 departments.

It’s long been unclear where the line was on homophobia. Things are changing – but the sport was miles behind to begin with

In the early 2000s a young AFL player was doing one of his regular radio slots when he and his co-hosts decided to play a game of word association. Lion – roar. London – doubledecker. And so on. “Gay,” one of the hosts offered. There was a long pause. “Die,” the player said.

If a footballer or broadcaster said that now you’d like to think they’d be run out of town. But back then it barely raised an eyebrow. It was certainly no impediment to career progression. Such ripping repertoire was in the news this week, after Jeremy Finlayson was eventually suspended for a homophobic slur. It took five days to decide on his penalty. The sticking point was the precedent set by Alastair Clarkson’s slap on the wrist earlier in the year. In effect the AFL conceded that it had been too lenient with the North Melbourne coach and that this was its stake in the ground.

Security agency tells Senate inquiry that violent hate groups are still inspired by Christchurch shooting

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Asio says violent rightwing extremists are still being inspired by the Christchurch mosque shooting massacre carried out by an Australian man in 2019, warning of an uptick in activity from hate groups “who want to trigger a so called ‘race war’”.

And the home affairs department has told a parliamentary inquiry into rightwing extremism that it is seeing increasing imports of Nazi imagery into Australia despite a ban on displaying such symbols, and has also raised alarm about violent extremist groups targeting councils in Victoria due to their support for the LGBTQ+ community.

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