Through Positive Eyes

Through Positive Eyes is a collaborative photo-storytelling project by 130 people living with HIV and AIDS around the world. This global photographic collaboration with Gideon Mendel and the UCLA Art & Global Health Center chronicles a very particular moment in the epidemic, when effective treatment is available but far from universal, and the enduring stigma associated with HIV and AIDS has become entrenched. Through Positive Eyes addresses this stigma, social inequality, and limited access to medication through the voices of those experiencing it. The participants in the project have volunteered to tell their stories and create their own artistic statements, empowering themselves in order to banish stigma.