During my time working as a photographer in sub-Saharan Africa, a recurring theme has been the documentation of HIV/AIDS. Initially much of this work told the stories of the virus’ devastation in communities and it’s effects on their societies. Many of these stories told of the challenges of accepting one’s HIV-positive status and the implications of denial.
Questioning the Blurring practice
I’m amongst the many thinking about something that happened this last week in South African journalism. On September 19, 2012 a digitally altered photograph was published on the front page of The Citizen, a national newspaper. Bodies seen in the debris of the blast in Kabul in the original wire photo by AFP, were removed in The Citizen’s reproduction of the photo.
Documentary Photography as a Tool of Social Change: Reading a shifting paradigm in the representation of HIV/AIDS in Gideon Mendel’s photography
This is a home for a work-in-progress, to distill the ideas encapsulated in my Master in Communication for Development thesis, completed at Malmö University.