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Corcoran opens up photography exhibit on effect of AIDS relief
16th June 2008
Nguyen Quoc Khanh fell ill last year with tuberculosis at his home in Vietnam and shortly afterwards was told he also was HIV positive, but by then he was too weak to work and support his family.
Khanh had been heroin user for a long time and had likely contracted the virus that causes AIDS through shared needles. The illness put Khanh, his wife and two children, who all shared a single room, at risk of losing what little they had. The good news is that just a few months later, after Khanh began taking antiretroviral drugs, that he regained his strength, returned to work and brought new hope to his family.
"The whole family structure was kind of falling apart," said Steve McCurry, a notable U.S. photographer who followed Khanh's recovery. "For him to be able to get back to work and get on his feet again was really encouraging. But I didn't think this guy was going to make it."
Images by McCurry and seven other photographers have been brought together in a new exhibit at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, which traces the effects of antiretroviral drug treatment in the fight against AIDS around the world. "Access to Life," organized by New York-based photography cooperative Magnum Photos and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, will be on view until July 20th.
The show, which opened on the 14th June, follows ordinary people with HIV from India, Haiti, Mali, Peru, Russia, Rwanda, South Africa, Swaziland and Vietnam. They are portrayed through video, Polaroid snapshots and hundreds of photo portraits.
The exhibition is expected to be shown in Paris, Berlin, Rome and London over the next months.
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