Peter Hujar’s Photographs, Curated by Elton John

Though not a duet, Elton John’s latest project is a harmony of sorts. An avid collector of black-and-white photography, the singer has handpicked 50 Peter Hujar prints for an exhibition at San Francisco’s Fraenkel Gallery. Opening next week, “Peter Hujar curated by Elton John” showcases the photographer’s breadth of subjects, which range from seascapes to beefcake to pets. “I’d long wanted to invite a formidable guest curator to dig into Hujar’s work,” says Jeffrey Fraenkel, who’s represented the artist’s estate since the early 2000s. “I came up with about a half dozen names, mostly writers and visual artists, but the idea of Elton seemed unbeatable.” Besides the fact that John has acquired 15 works by Hujar since 2011, the union made emotional sense to Fraenkel. “Hujar’s work focused on the [queer] cultural scene, male erotica and other issues that overlap with Elton’s interests,” says Fraenkel. Hujar is perhaps best known for his images of members of the cultural vanguard of 1970s and ’80s New York — among them Fran Lebowitz, Susan Sontag and David Wojnarowicz, who was Hujar’s partner. John made a point of choosing some of the photographer’s less-seen portraits, including those variously depicting a young Stevie Wonder, a middle-aged Peggy Lee and the Warhol acolyte Jackie Curtis in her open casket. “The show doesn’t shy away from the tough pictures about illness or death, which are main components of Hujar’s work,” says Fraenkel. Hujar himself died of complications from AIDS in 1987. Fittingly, all proceeds from the show’s first two sales will go to the Elton John AIDS Foundation. On view from Sept. 8 through Oct. 22, fraenkelgallery.com.

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On a Greek Isle, a Hotel Overlooking the Water

For more than 20 years, the most stylish hotel on Kastellorizo, a tiny Greek island just a few miles from the Turkish coast, has been the Mediterraneo, with its lemon-yellow facade and six regular rooms and ground-floor suite. Designed, owned and run by the French architect Marie Rivalant Lazarakis, it’s named after the 1991 Oscar-winning film that was shot on the island. In 2007, Lazarakis opened a store on Kasetellorizo that sells kaftans, throws and jewelry; this summer, after much anticipation, she unveiled a second hotel property there — Casa Mediterraneo, set within a trio of joined neo-Classical buildings across the harbor from Mediterraneo and painted a blood-orange red. It also has six rooms, as…