Hujar’s career was bookended by Diane Arbus, who rose to prominence in the 70s, and Robert Mapplethorpe, who did so a decade later. And while Arbus was known for her documentary work and Mapplethorpe for his portrayals of BDSM, black men and botany, Hujar’s work was harder to pin down. “One thing I won’t answer is anything about why I do what I do,” he told David Wojnarowicz at the beginning of an attempted interview.

While Hujar sadly died of AIDs in 1987, his photographs of Downtown New York and those who inhabited it resonate as powerfully today as they did back then. This week, Helmut Lang revealed that a selection of his images will be included in a new project initiated by the brand’s Editor-in-Residence and Dazed’s Editor-in-Chief, Isabella Burley, who describes his portrayals of the New York underground as having a “unique intimacy”.