These Selfies Fight Stigma
People with HIV make their own artistic statement in the photo-storytelling project Through Positive
Presented by the Fowler Museum at UCLA and co-curated by UCLA World Arts and Cultures/Dance Professor and Art and Global Health Center Director David Gere, Through Positive Eyes is a large-scale photography and storytelling project created in collaboration with more than 130 people living with HIV/AIDS.
"Since 2007, the Through Positive Eyes workshops have put cameras in the hands of people living with HIV and taught them to express their lives and fight stigma through photography. This World AIDS Day, December 1, sees the publication of images and paired stories by 130 workshop participants in a book by Aperture. A related exhibition, which includes live performances, is up through February 16 at the Fowler Museum at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Both of the projects are titled Through Positive Eyes, and both of them predominantly feature self-portraits, taken selfie-style or with a tripod and self-timer.Launched by UCLA’s Art & Global Health Center and helmed by photographer Gideon Mendel and David Gere, PhD, professor of AIDS/arts activism and world arts and cultures, the project has included a total of 10 workshops in cities spanning the globe. POZ emailed Gere to discuss the project. His answers are below, followed by sample photos and stories from the project.
How have the workshops and photography affected the participants?
So many of the participants—we call them “artivists,” part artist, part activist—report that photography has created a crucial outlet for their thoughts and emotions. Lynnea, from Los Angeles, wants to make a book of photographs about strong women living with HIV. She has the talent to do it."— Trenton Straube, November 18, 2019
This post is an excerpt. Read the full article on the POZ website.
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