The photo that brought AIDS home
As we've discussed the multiple dimensions of AIDS at length on class, I thought I'd share photo feature from Time magazine. Sorry this is a few weeks late, but I just remembered it this week, so...better late than never, right?
I'm a good deal older than most of the class, and I vividly remember the AIDS hysteria in the late 80s. I was just in elementary school, but it was so pervasive, so sensational. It was all over the news, and the only thing I can compare it to in more recent terms is something like when the bird flu broke out, and everyone started wearing surgical masks and talking about the dirty Chinese. Only, with AIDS, the fear and persecution seemed to reach a more feverish pitch, with hate and prejudice being allowed in the name of public health. Looking back and reflecting on that time again in class has really given me a renewed perspective on the topic. What I find most disheartening is that HIV and AIDS are still viewed as a queer/Black-American issue. There are so many layers to this social issue that people fail, or refuse, to see. I recall the media fuss over the Benneton ads, and never really understanding, or caring to understand. Maybe I was too young, but even now, two decades later, I'm still grappling with the ads, and whether the company was exploiting a tragic phenomenon.
Peta's "duality" as noted in the captions is particularly arresting. Caretaker and patient, half-Native American, half-White, feminine and masculine... sick and strong. And the cyclical nature of discourse that Delany alludes to in his essay are embodied, quite literally, in the lives of the Kirby family and Peta. In these photos, I could see Crimp's mourning come to life as well, the physical incarnation of his words on paper.
Anyway, I don't think the feature needs any narration by me. I just find it profoundly provocative and powerful, and thought I should share.
- terese
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