Through Positive Eyes:
My Photo, My HIV Story
Online Now
Through Positive Eyes: My Photo, My HIV Story features photography, stories, sculpture, and video created by people living with HIV/AIDS in cities across the world. In each city, a photography and storytelling workshop is conducted, putting cameras in the hands of people most deeply affected by HIV. Combined, these works show a broad picture of the epidemic and coalesce around a belief that challenging stigma against people living with HIV/AIDS is one of the most effective methods for combating the epidemic.
This exhibit is inspired by the project Through Positive Eyes, which has spanned 12 cities over 12 years. To experience more of Through Positive Eyes, visit throughpositiveeyes.org.
Through Positive Eyes is organized by the UCLA Art & Global Health Center and is co-curated by David Gere, Director, UCLA Art & Global Health Center, Professor or World Arts and Cultures at UCLA, and founder of MAKE ART/STOP AIDS; Carol Brown, independent curator, and Stan Pressner, exhibit designer. Project co-directors are David Gere and London-based South African photographer Gideon Mendel. Major funding is provided by the Herb Ritts Foundation.
Website cover image by Gideon Mendel.
Exhibition Highlights
Daniel Goldstein Art Installation "Medicine People"
As part of this exhibit, three iconic sculptures by Portland-based artist Daniel Goldstein will be suspended from the Gates Foundation Discovery Center’s ceiling. For over 25 years, Goldstein has worked at the local and global level as an activist in the fight against HIV/AIDS. The exhibit will feature his haunting Medicine People, suspended figures made out of syringes and pill bottles, that were created out of his own experiences with the pandemic.
Virtual Experiences
Sign up for virtual, interactive experiences for middle, high school, and college students around various themes in the exhibit, Through Positive Eyes: My Photo, My HIV Story.
Artivists
Meet the group of Seattle-based HIV-positive artist-activists, known as “artivists.” The Seattle-based artivists will tell their powerful stories for Discovery Center visitors and school groups several times a week virtually.
