Framing AIDS

"This project was born out of the intense struggle for treatment access that took place in South Africa in the early 2000s. Until this point I had been a concerned photojournalist, working in black and white. However, with this project I became a visual activist, keen to create images that might impact the struggle more directly. I began to work in colour, to make images that were more accessible and positive.

Together with the Treatment Action Campaign, I developed a visual installation at the National Gallery in Cape Town. Central to the installation was this “frame series”: an improvised frame, made from black tape on a wall, which had become a conceptual tool for engagement with these issues.

The inside of the frame provided a space through which subjects could make their own statements about HIV/AIDS, through their gesture or gaze. Some strongly wanted to challenge stigma and show their faces, while others did not wish to be identified and instead used objects or parts of their bodies to express themselves. In each case, their words formed a crucial element of the piece.

This process of relinquishing some of my own control over the photograph empowered the HIV-positive activists who filled the frames, and they became collaborators in the process.

This body of work was made into a 13-poster series, Treatment Access which was widely distributed and used by organisations to raise awareness about the issues surrounding HIV. The whole set can be downloaded from . Some of the images displayed in this collection were made in Mozambique, where I first developed this approach." - Gideon Mendel

See: https://gideonmendel.com/frami...