Access to Life Exhibition
March 28 - April 26, 2009, Madrid, Spain
Access to Life Exhibition
For 25 years, AIDS has ravaged the lives and livelihoods of millions of people. Since the early 1980s, nearly 30 million people have died from AIDS. But over the past few years, a quiet global revolution has enabled millions of people infected by HIV to live healthy lives. Magnum and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria sent eight photographers to nine different countries to document the effects of free antiretroviral drug treatment.
In 2007, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria initiated a joint project with Magnum Photos to graphically document the impact that free antiretroviral drug treatment is having on the lives of millions of people living with AIDS internationally. The AIDS pandemic has had a terrible impact in many parts of the world – but it has been particularly devastating in countries where access to even basic health care is limited. Internationally, the story of AIDS’ terrible toll is better known than the global efforts to drive back the pandemic through treating those already sick and preventing new HIV infections.
In order to capture the complex and far-reaching changes that take place when people faced with death suddenly get a new chance at life, the photographic cooperative Magnum Photos harnessed the talents of some of the best photographers in the world. An international team of eight noted photographers traveled to nine countries to document the transformative effects AIDS treatment has had on 33 individuals and their families. In India, Haiti, Mali, Peru, Russia, Rwanda, South Africa, Swaziland, and Viet Nam, the photographers created visual chronicles that encompassed their subjects’ lives both before and after the start of treatment. The resulting exhibition is a powerful testament to the strength and spirit of each person, of the care and commitment of those around them, and of the lifechanging impact of the drugs—drugs which are available thanks to international funding.
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