Millions of people in Asia suffer from HIV/AIDS, and millions more lives are affected. Mother to child transmission of the disease, usually after the man contracts AIDS from a sex worker and then transmits it to his wife, has produced children infected with the disease numbering in the hundreds of thousands. Families are torn apart and lives are ruined, all by a disease that could be controlled to high degree with simple education as well as proper medicine and medical facilities. One of the primary reasons for families to be thrust into poverty in the developing world is when one member becomes ill, especially if it's the bread winner of the family and they are infected with illnesses like HIV/AIDS.
As a photojournalist it is always difficult to photograph subject matter that you are closely emotionally tied to, yet that emotional tie also allows you a passion for the work and a sense of purpose in documenting it. Photographing people dying from AIDS—the same disease that I lost my father to—has been a personal mission of mine, mainly because I hope to create awareness that may save others from the pain of living with the disease, dying from it or losing a loved one to it.
When you know what it is like for someone to suffer through AIDS in the Western world, watching people suffer through it in the absolute worst of conditions is beyond difficult. To see people sleeping on hospital floors, coated in flies with barely enough energy to open their eyes to look at you, it is hard to bring the camera up to your face and shoot. But this is my job; it is what I have chosen to do and I have done so because I believe in the power of the still image to effect change.
This story was photographed between 2004 and 2005 and re-edited in 2009.
Post Script: This blog relies on the support of its readers to continue. Please consider a paid subscription or one-time donation. Free gifts including signed exhibition prints will be given to those subscribing at the $50 per month level and above. Visit www.zoriah.com/donate for details.
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Your photos are lovely and real and quite beautiful in portraying the suffering this disease causes. As a nurse that has worked both in the best hospitals of the medical community and the smallest community hospitals in the impoverished and AIDS ravished countries of South Africa, these images are all too familiar.
I feel compelled to note, in criticism of your blog text, that a person is not "infected with AIDS". HIV, the Human Immunodeficiency Virus, is the virus which is transmitted through contact with infectious blood, semen, vaginal fluids and breast milk. AIDS, Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, is the diagnosis given to a person when their immune system is so compromised by their HIV infection that they become ill with one or more of any the 29 AIDS-defining illnesses. People become infected with HIV, which when untreated, then attacks their immune system to a point of deficiency that they then become ill and are diagnosed with AIDS. These may seem subtle but are important differences.
Thank you for your amazing work and for showing your subjects in such a realist, respectful manner.
Posted by: Julia | May 20, 2009 at 22:47
Julia,
You are quite right, there was a mistake in one of the captions and I appreciate you pointing it out. I have made the correction.
Posted by: Zoriah | May 21, 2009 at 01:30
Powerful images that strike a chord in my very being. The last image though is haunting. I hope that you will continue in your efforts to document this disease. Nicely captured Zoriah.
Posted by: Jefferson L. Morriss | May 22, 2009 at 04:21
Dear all around the world:
I am a muslim, i would like to narrate the message according to Quran & Hadith as follows regarding AIDS/HIV.
Allah say Not to commit illegal sexual intercourse & whoever indulge, get the punishment in this world, that punishmnent will be an expiation for that sin.
Thank you
A. Mohammed
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As of November 2009, there are 18,815 (0.082%) Taiwanese nationals reported cases. Currently HIV/AIDS patients of Taiwanese nationals can enjoy free medical care (including HAART therapies), with the state covering the cost. Non-governmental organizations have set up "AIDS Half-Way Houses" for homeless patients. The ratio of patients of drug users increases rapidly, which has led the authority to promote a harm reduction program.
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I feel compelled to note, in criticism of your blog text, that a person is not "infected with AIDS". HIV, the Human Immunodeficiency Virus, is the virus which is transmitted through contact with infectious blood, semen, vaginal fluids and breast milk.
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There are many different types of treatments for HIV and AIDS related cancers. For the most part, medical professionals will provide sufferers with prescription based medications. One treatment that is starting to become more and more popular is referred to as "Angiogenesis".
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I think your photos are very powerful. But I also find them a bit disconnected in depicting HIV, especially in developing country context. There are no names, no stories, no context except this person is a prostitute ("sex worker" is less stigmatizing as "prostitute" in some cultures connotes "fallen woman") or this person is dying....etc. If you are traveling around the world seeing people affected or living with HIV, surely you have also seen people who have overcome their circumstances, who overcome the stigma and discrimination and overall odds, to help others like themselves, very much like the HIV+ women, men and children I have had the pleasure to work with in Asia and Africa. One-sided views of what HIV is and how it affects those around us, have also largely contributed to the stigma and discrimination that is now affecting those living with HIV. Do you obtain consent to take these photos from those depicted in them? Do you explain to them how your photos of them are being used? Do you understand the context of HIV enough to understand that you are taking a photo of someone who has a stigmatizing disease only to possibly expose them to further discrimination by posting it on the internet? Or do you assume that the populations you depict in your photos are so poor they wouldn't access the internet nor would anyone who could discriminate against them?
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