Through Positive Eyes

Through Positive Eyes is based on the belief that challenging stigma against people living with HIV/AIDS is an effective method for combating the epidemic - and that art is a powerful way to do this. The project is in the process of creating an international album of personal photo essays created by people living with HIV/AIDS, drawn from 10-day workshops in major cities around the globe. According to one person involved with the initiative, "[i]n an attempt to redress a common absence in AIDS advocacy work, the insights of people living with HIV are central to this project." Since 2007, dozens of HIV-positive people on 5 continents have taken part. Their work can be found on the Through Positive Eyes website and in exhibitions around the world. Through Positive Eyes was initially conceived and implemented in pilot form in Los Angeles, California, United States (US) in February 2007. Since then, it has been produced in Mexico City, Mexico (August 2008), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (June 2009), Johannesburg, South Africa (March 2010), and Washington, DC, US (July 2012).

In each project city, prior to the start of the project, a local partner organisation selects a group of HIV-positive people, who then take part in an intensive workshop directed by Gideon Mendel and photo educator Crispin Hughes. The workshop is designed to teach people with no prior visual training to express themselves using small high-resolution digital cameras. Next, Mendel travels to the home or workplace of each participant to make a portrait and to film him or her in personal surroundings. Alongside the visual process, organisers record interviews with each participant, asking him or her to share life stories, experiences, and challenges faced when living with HIV and AIDS. The interviews are transcribed so that they exist in both audio and text format. At the close of the project, control is turned over to the local partnering organisation, which maintains contact with project participants and continues to nurture their growth as artists and activists through photography workshops, leadership training, and grassroots exhibition of materials.

This combination of participants' images and text, as well as portraits by Mendel, creates the following outputs:

• Through Positive Eyes website, which includes the work from each country, presenting photo essays and text from all participants, along with edited films for some. The images in Through Positive Eyes do not necessarily depict sickness, but more often, show ordinary moments in the participants' lives.
• Short films composed of still images and recorded stories: These 3-minute films are designed to serve as advocacy tools that can be disseminated via the internet, or on DVD. The films combine still photographs, video clips, and recorded voices of the participants. [To request materials, contact Kristin Killacky, Producer, at kkillacky@arts.ucla.edu].
• Mobile exhibitions: Combining participant photographs, Mendel's portraits, and narratives, exhibitions can be mounted on portable frames designed specifically for this purpose. The mobility of this exhibition is key, as it enables display in any number of public sites including galleries and museums but also schools, healthcare facilities, prisons, markets, etc.

HIV/AIDS.

"'There's a healing process for me personally, as far as stigma within myself,' said Mary Bowman, a 23-year-old Washington-based poet and activist who participated in the last workshop held there [as part of Through Positive Eyes]...'Self-stigma made me go into a hole...'...Ms. Bowman still thinks about the days before she had to constantly talk about - and represent - H.I.V. But she said it's worth the emotional support and gratitude she gets in return through exhibits like these."

The UCLA Art & Global Health Center seeks to nurture a global network of artists and advocates working in the realm of public health.