Play Smart I

The first in the series, Play Smart I featured photographers Aaron Cobbett, inkedKenny, Greg Mitchell and Slava Mogutin and were designed by John Chaich.

Produced by Visual AIDS for free distribution, Play Smart trading cards were created to be an honest and straight-forward approach to promote harm reduction, HIV testing and post-exposure prophylaxis. Since the start, Play Smart has been packaged with two trading cards, a sticker, condoms and lube. The back of each trading card featuring information to help you play smart.

Artists' Statements and Bios

Aaron Cobbett When I first came to New York in 1986, AIDS was a death sentence. Having stood at the bedside of friends who died of the disease, I consider myself a living witness. I remember going out to bars and clubs in the 80's, there would always be a bowl of brown paper envelopes on the bar with a lighthouse or something printed on them, I never really paid attention to the outside, but the inside of these little packets contained condoms and lube. I've often wondered how many lives they saved, certainly mine, that is why when Visual AIDS asked me to participate in this Play Smart trading cards project, I jumped at the chance to do it.

Aaron Cobbett is an award winning Photographer/Director, well known for his highly stylized, extravagant portraits of celebrities, drag queens, go-go boys, and New York personalities. Working in his downtown NYC studio, Cobbett creates environments, costumes, hair and make-up to transform his subjects into the living inhabitants of his imagination. Aaron's work has been the subject of solo exhibits and group shows and in galleries worldwide, his stylized portraiture has appeared in Vogue, Vanity Fair, Glamour, Interview, TETU and countless other magazines, his music video projects can currently be seen on MTV, VH1 and LOGO networks. Aaron's first monograph, SuperEros was published in 2000, his second Cobbett was published in 2007.

inkedKenny As a person living with HIV for the past 22 years, my involvement with the Play Smart trading card series was a given and without hesitation. Opening the world's eyes to the reality of HIV/AIDS continues to be extremely important and therefore working in conjunction with Visual AIDS was my absolute honor and pleasure.

With over 20 years in the fashion business, inkedKenny has worked on photo shoots, runway shows, special events, commercials and music videos. That experience carries through his career as a photographer. Over the past few years, he has chosen to develop his skill as a photographer and focuses on MEN. For inkedKenny, "Inspiration comes foremost from the energy I feel from the MEN I shoot... Sexy is a combination of confidence, strength, hard-edged masculinity and natural good looks. When shooting, I like to pull one's personality into the image as much as possible -- whether it's acted out or a real part of them -- my goal is to have some depth and guts in the final image." His work has been widely published and written about.

Greg Mitchell I was brought into this wonderfully conceived, Play Smart trading cards project, with little time to spare, and I'm very happy with the results. I'm even more pleased and indeed, humbled to be in the esteemed company of Aaron Cobbett, inkedKenny, and Slava Mogutin. I owe a great debt of thanks to my two models for generously giving their time, energy, and excitement to this project. A big nod to John Chaich for his terrifically smart design for this project. I've been so very lucky in my life (still here and alive with some two decades of HIV and AIDS under my belt), but never luckier and more grateful than to be a member artist of Visual AIDS.

Greg Mitchell, after careers in law, teaching and acting, began taking photos in 2008. Greg is self-taught, first using only a webcam and still primarily using a point and shoot camera. Greg's artwork is represented in The Frank Moore Archive Project at Visual AIDS. His photos have been shown and published both nationally and internationally.

Slava Mogutin I've been following and supporting Visual AIDS and it's honorable mission for quite some time now, so when I was asked to shoot some sporty pin-up pictures for their Play Smart trading card project, I couldn't be more enthusiastic. I believe it's a very effective and creative way of promoting HIV reduction and prevention in our community. Safer Sex can be fun! Safer Sex can be art!!!

Siberian-born artist and writer Slava Mogutin was exiled from Russia for his queer writings and activism at the age of 21. In 1995, he was granted political asylum in the US with the support of Amnesty International and PEN American Center. He is the author of two hardcover monographs of photography, Lost Boys and NYC Go-Go, and seven books of writings published in Russian. In the past decade, Mogutin's photography and multimedia work has been exhibited internationally, including P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center and Museum of Art and Design in New York, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, Australian Centre for Photography in Sydney, Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art in Rotterdam, Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Overgaden Institute of Contemporary Art in Copenhagen, The Haifa Museum of Art in Israel, and Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León (MUSAC) in Spain. Mogutin's work has been featured in a wide range of publications including The New York Times, The Village Voice, Whitewall, Modern Painters, ArtUS, i-D, V, Visionaire, L'Uomo Vogue, and L'Officiel Hommes. www.slavamogutin.blogspot.com