StoreBearing Witness (To AIDS)
Bearing Witness (To AIDS)
Bearing Witness (To AIDS) is a collection of black and white photographs by Thomas McGovern that explores the devastating, and sometimes beautiful truths of the AIDS pandemic in the U.S.
McGovern's project covers the ten-year period from 1987-1997, a time of intense AIDS activism which forced the pandemic into the cultural and political dialogue. People with HIV/AIDS, rejecting the label of 'victim', are seen actively taking control of their lives and their medical treatment in this straightforward and sober account.
In McGovern's words, "this is not really a documentary project, it's an attempt to merge the didactic and the expressive... I'm an artist, not a journalist and I don't pretend to be unbiased or objective in my view of the crisis. What I am trying to do is demonstrate some of the depth of people's experiences about AIDS, and particularly, my own experience of it."