Immunology, Documentary Photography & Photojournalism, Portrait Photography - General & Miscellaneous

Living with AIDS

Name: Living with AIDS
Author: Vicki Goldberg
ISBN: 9780821220818

by Vicki Goldberg

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Overview

Living with AIDS is a moving and inspiring look at how many people - whether actually infected or close to those who arehave come to grips with the disease. Determined and courageous, they demonstrate ways in which they have fashioned full, vital lives in the face of this daunting illness, and show that infection with the virus that causes AIDS need not lead to abject fear and despair. Sal Lopes's stirring photographs fall into three interrelated sections. First is "The Quilt" - an inspiring look at the AIDS Memorial Quilt, each panel of which is created by people who have cared about and lost someone to this disease; the creation of these panels assures that their loved ones live on in memory and helps the quiltmakers come to terms with their lives and loss. Next comes "The Buddies," volunteers who have become caregivers for people with AIDS they have never met before. Finally "The Boyce Family" recounts the story of a married couple who cared enough about children born with HIV antibodies - and a child with full-blown AIDS - to make them the core of their adoptive family. In her thoughtful introduction about photography and AIDS, Vicki Goldberg examines how photographers have dealt with the physiological manifestations of this disease or its political ramifications. But Sal Lopes is more concerned with conveying the courage and humanity demonstrated by those affected by it. Living with AIDS embodies a message of encouragement and strength that will provide reassurance for, and inspire hope in, anyone affected by what has become an unavoidable aspect of the human condition in our contemporary world.

In the first book to look at the daily courage and humanity of people afflicted with AIDS, Lopes offers a vital message of encouragement, strength, and, most of all, hope. Introduction by Vicki Goldberg (The Power of Photography). 125 duotone photos.

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Editorials

Library Journal

In her introductory essay to Living with AIDS, Goldberg elucidates both the strengths and ultimate failing of these two black-and-white photo collections. Opening with an analysis of popular-media coverage of AIDS, she notes that ``the news all too often opted for cheap drama.'' In these two books, both photographers avoid easy sentiment, neither pitying nor lionizing their subjects. Lopes's work is perhaps more revealing, capturing PWAs (people with AIDS) and their friends in their own environments. Lopes has compiled three separate essays. Analogous to his earlier collection on the Viet Nam memorial (The Wall, LJ 11/15/87), his first collection here captures the emotional responses of visitors to the AIDS quilt. His next group offers dual portraits of PWAs and their volunteer caregivers, called buddies. The third collection offers candid and posed pictures of John and Sharon Boyce and their adopted HIV-positive children. In Living Proof, Jones poses her PWA and HIV-positive subjects in the studio, inviting them to bring along whoever or whatever gives them strength. These are meant to be uplifting photos, exploring the positive energy and attitudes of her subjects, and they succeed on that level. As in Lopes's book, however, there is an implicit expectation of a shared insight that both of these books fail to deliver. As Goldberg concludes, ``The extent and ramifications of AIDS...cannot be compassed by photography.'' Recommended only for large AIDS collections.-Eric Bryant, ``Library Journal''