Through Positive Eyes in South Africa
May 14, 2010 Bobby Gordon, Director of Special Programs Art | Global Health Center at UCLA tells us about his experience with Through Positive Eyes in South Africa.
Johannesburg, South Africa – We landed at about 07h00, having not slept much in the past two days. The airport looked recently remodelled and was filled with shops selling World Cup paraphernalia, with the tournament starting in a few months. We are so excited to meet the group and get started.
After a couple days of preparation and anticipation, all 17 participating HIV+ activists showed up at the site and we wasted no time in getting to know each other. After short introductions by Pholokgolo Ramothwala (Head of Positive Convention) and David Gere (Head of the Art | Global Health Center at UCLA) on the history and importance of the project, it was time to get going.
Early on in the day I got the chance to get to know Gugu, a young woman with a beautiful daughter, a tough life story and an amazing drive to tell it to the world. She said that she was hoping to write a book based on her life. We agreed working on a creative project like Through Positive Eyes (TPE) was not a bad place to start. Turns out she had started a long time ago.
Gideon Mendel and fellow photographer Crispin Hughes were taking the group through their photography, sharing their images and their stories and inspiring the group of soon-to-be art activists. Gideon was showing an image that he took at TAC almost 10 years ago where a group of South Africans held up signs with personally written messages demanding HIV-treatment. We didn’t know until she shouted out, “That’s me!” that Gugu was in the photograph. This project is a magical reunion of sorts. This is the next step. That first photo was taken to demand treatment access. The photos that she will take herself in this project will be a stand against HIV stigma.
After lunch, it was time to begin for real. Each of the participants got their hands on a digital camera and began to learn how to use it. Photo educator, Crispin Hughes, took everyone through all the settings including how to avoid using the flash, which makes photos less interesting. The group took to photography immediately and enthusiastically.
The HIV+ South African art activists went back to their homes and came back the next day with their first round of photos. I was blown away. A passionate kiss; a moment of tough solitude; a teenage son home laughing on the couch – the new artists opened windows into their lives that were not just touching, but amazing photographs in their own right.
The group looked at the first edits of their images, commenting, laughing and engaging with the art that their co-artists had created. Crispin then inspired the group to make emotional statements by sharing a few powerful series of his own work. Mikhael Subotzky (project co-director and Gideon Mendel’s nephew) also pushed the group to explore their own photography by showing his images.
Just north of Pretoria, South Africa at 18h15, the orange sun was starting to set, lighting the dirt to a red glow as loud music from several different houses filled the air. I spent sunset on this night watching photographer, Gideon Mendel, take a portrait of Pleasure in front of his house in a small town on a dirt road. He wore an “HIV-Positive” construction worker-style orange vest and held a fist in the air as he cast a strong look at Mendel’s camera.
The past few days Gideon and I have been travelling to each of the participants’ homes to take their portraits. Everyone’s hospitality has also been so amazing, letting us into their homes as honoured guests. While the TPE team was there, the new photographers had the chance to show off the work they’d been doing themselves. These are special people who are capturing every beautiful, painful and complicated element of living with HIV in this beautiful and complicated place.
A few days later we made it to Gugu’s house. The two, Gugu and Gideon, had worked together previously to fight for access to the treatment they needed and now they were back together to fight HIV stigma. Gugu sat down with her daughter and they each made a new sign, echoing the image from so long ago. Gugu’s read: “I am not ashamed to be HIV-positive” and her daughter’s read: “My mother is my hero.”
Fighting stigma is a big mountain to climb in South Africa. Even though the country has a high rate of infection, many people do not want to be open about their status, or even get tested because of the stigma and discrimination. Gugu mentioned how friends and family told her ignorantly that she was definitely going to die when she told them about her HIV-positive status. But Gugu is strong. She looked at us defiantly and said, “I’m not the dying type.”
The closing event for Through Positive Eyes was incredible. Filled with song, dance and vibrant activist energy, it was one of those experiences where you feel lucky to be in the room because you realise you’re in a space where people have come alive. You are exactly where the magic is happening and you want to celebrate right in the middle of it.
It was such a thrill to see the way the crowd of more than 200 interacted and reacted to the posters that told the stories of the 17 HIV-positive photographers. People stopped in front of each poster, wrapped up in the participants’ images, leaning in to read the accompanying stories.
Justice Edwin Cameron gave a truly inspirational speech about how stigma is the battle that needs to be fought over HIV now and how amazing it is that this group has banded together to do just that. He finished by calling the group up in front of the audience, where they were applauded and at which they immediately broke into song. The entire room stood up and joined them.
The event concluded with an awards ceremony where each participant proudly received his/her certificate from Justice Cameron. But it is important to every one of the participants and organisers that this not be the end. The time is now upon us to take this amazing work that has been created and to get it out to the community. This is our job now and one that we will need everyone’s help on: to fight HIV stigma so that life is better for our HIV-positive brothers and sisters and so that people who don’t know their status will be more likely to get tested for HIV. This is what we’re fighting for together.
Click here to see more photos of the Through Positive Eyes Exhibition.