Page 16 - Faces of AIDS: 102 Portraits

at Grace Cathedral, has created “Somber” and “disturbing” these
something of a worldwide sensation. portraits certainly are. All of the
The disturbing photos will be shown portraits are very close-up shots,
in Stockholm next summer, under with the subjects’ heads and faces

the auspices of the International Red filling nearly every inch of the photos,
Cross; then at the House of Commons revealing every line and every wrinkle
in London and, after that, probably the and, in some cases, every lesion on the
National Cathedral in Washington.” subject’s face. Young and old, male and
female, white folks and people of color,
Jim continued adding portraits to all are represented in this series of
the project, photographing men and portraits. Many of the subjects of these
women with AIDS until he had a total portraits—Canon Barcus, Patrick Reilly,
of 101 black-and-white portraits. In Edgardo Rodriguez among them—

October 1987, with the AIDS Memorial chose solemn, thoughtful expressions
Quilt displayed for the first time on for the camera, one supposes, to fit the
the National Mall in Washington, solemnity of their situation. Still others
D.C., during the National March on chose to be remembered with their
Washington for Lesbian and Gay biggest, brightest smiles in place—
Rights, Jim’s Faces of AIDS exhibit John Lorenzini, Carson Tong, Frederic
hung at the American Red Cross. The White, and others all flashed 100-watt
exhibit continued to travel around the smiles at Jim’s camera—at us—as if in
world with the Quilt. Unfortunately, defiance of the disease ravishing their
traveling with thousands of panels bodies, smiling through the pain. Yet,
of the Quilt and 101 large-scale those smiles cannot hide the anguish in

framed photographs became terribly the subjects’ eyes as the disease eats
unmanageable. Jim told me, sadly, away at their immune systems.
“Over the years and after some neglect,
the portraits seem to have disappeared. I am particularly drawn to a few of
No one knows where the portraits are the portraits, especially the photos of
right now. I’ve tried to track them down, Frederic White and Canon Barcus.
but no luck.” White’s portrait stands out for me
because he seems to be one of the
Thus, the sense of loss surrounding older subjects that Jim photographed;

these portraits is compounded. Not there seems to be a lot of living and
only, Jim believes, are all of his subjects great wisdom in the lines around his
long dead, lost to the AIDS epidemic, eyes, great love in that radiant smile.
the framed portraits themselves are And yet his eyes also reveal a deep
“lost” to us. Fortunately, Jim still has the sadness, almost as if White realized
original negatives of all of the portraits. that the scab on his forehead (perhaps
Their impact has not diminished since a KS lesion?) would dominate the
their initial showing in 1986. photograph. Canon Barcus’ portrait