Seeing AIDS Up Close

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Nguyen Quoc Khanh, 44, began using opium while he was working in a gold mine. He has since contracted TB and become very sick. Photo by Steve McCurry/Magnum Photos.

Remember Jonas Bendiksen’s photographic record of how people actually live in what the rest of us call “slums?” He’s a part of a new project, out this week from the Aperture Foundation.

Access to Life features poignant photographs chronicling the impact of the AIDS pandemic on 39 individuals undergoing treatment in nine countries.

I was moved by the intimate settings and close-up portraits. Stories of survival and stories of tragedy sit side by side, showing how difficult it still is to get AIDS treatment.

South African icon Desmond Tutu opens the collection, writing that “this book shows AIDS treatment in all its complexity. Not all stories end well. Not all experiences are life altering for those who go through them. But AIDS treatment allows those struggles to go on. It brings life, and in doing so it brings hope. This is the message that we can take away from these exceptionally poignant images.”

More than just a book, the Access to Life project has become a campaign to raise awareness and promote artistic, educational and political responses to AIDS treatment. An international exhibit of the photographs will travel to Mexico City, Paris, Berlin and Rome through 2010.

A man in Hanoi suffers from malnutrition. Photo by Steve McCurry/Magnum Photos.

In addition to Bendiksen, participating photographers include Jim Goldberg, Alex Majoli, Steve McCurry, Paolo Pellegrin, Gilles Peress, Eli Reed and Larry Towell. Their work spans the globe, following the stories of individuals in Haiti, India, Russia, Vietnam, Mali, Rwanda, Peru, South Africa and Swaziland.

Bendiksen’s work for the project focused on residents of the Central Plateau in Haiti. The country is one of the poorest in the world, but is making steady progress in providing AIDS treatment.