Through Positive Eyes: living with HIV and Aids - a photo essay
Through Positive Eyes is a collaborative photo-storytelling project by 130 people living with HIV and AIDS in 10 cities around the world. These photographs and stories were produced by participants who had been on a five-month workshop led by South African photographer Gideon Mendel, with photo educator Crispin Hughes, and David Gere, director of the UCLA Art & Global Health Center.
Through Positive Eyes, a travelling exhibition of photos and stories by people living with HIV and Aids and curated by the UCLA Art & Global Health Center, was originally scheduled to open at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Discovery Center in the summer of 2020. Starting with an intensive 10-day workshop, the training was intended to support a group of HIV-positive people in learning how to share their stories and photographic images to confront the stigma associated with the illness.
Due to Covid-19, the expected workshop had to be reconsidered and transformed to a virtual setting. The result was an extended five-month version of the group workshop, augmented by individual sessions, during which the cohort bonded as a collective, considered various aspects of their HIV stories, and developed unique visual approaches and individual photographic voices for the virtual format.
“The results have exceeded our expectations,” said Gideon Mendel, co-director of the Through Positive Eyes project. “An amazingly rich and diverse set of images has emerged, both creatively astonishing and politically powerful. This moment, when we are all so concerned about the Covid virus, reminds us of the continued challenges that people living with the HIV virus are still facing around the world.”
The original intention was for the photo-stories to be presented live in the galleries of the Gates Foundation Discovery Center for school and community groups and for members of the public."— Dec. 1, 2020
This post is an excerpt. Read the full article on the The Guardian website.
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