Through Positive Eyes started in Los Angeles in February 2007, when Gideon Mendel came to UCLA to teach a workshop course in the Department of World Arts and Cultures. This early version of the project, HIV-Positive in LA, featured images by student photographers and Gideon Mendel as well as first-person texts, but nobody had thought yet of giving cameras to every participant. To view the stories of this first group of Through Positive Eyes participants, follow this link.
Mexico
In August 2008, Letra S, a sexual rights advocacy group in Mexico City, identified fourteen HIV-positive people willing to share their stories publicly. The project gave them small but excellent digital cameras and provided training in how to use them. Their work, titled Historias Positivas, was exhibited at the XVII International AIDS Conference, where it was covered by international media including the Hindustan Times, and London’s The Guardian. Since 2008, the photographers renamed the exhibition Una Mirada Positiva, and have accompanied it on tours to health fairs, high schools, universities, prisons, hospitals, and city halls throughout Mexico.
Brazil
Officials of the Brazilian Ministry of Health STD/AIDS Prevention Department witnessed the project in Mexico and had a vision of supporting it in Brazil. In June 2009, the Brazilian Interdisciplinary AIDS Association (ABIA) identified seventeen HIV-positive people in Rio de Janeiro, who produced the work you see here and who have remained involved in ongoing photography workshops coordinated through ABIA.
South Africa
In March 2010, Pholokgolo Ramothwala, convener of the activist platform Positive Convention, gathered together seventeen HIV-positive people from Johannesburg and the surrounding area. Working with Francois Smit of the design firm Quba, the participants produced a distinctive set of posters for use in reducing stigma and encouraging testing and treatment in South Africa. The group continues to meet regularly and is actively involved in shaping the future of the project in the country.
Los Angeles
In April 2011, the UCLA Art and Global Health Center partnered with the Los Angeles Unified School District’s HIV/AIDS Prevention Unit and their speaker’s bureau, Positively Speaking, to convene a workshop for twelve HIV-positive people from Los Angeles and the surrounding area. During the ten-day workshop, participant-photographers created individual photo essays, which were then transformed into autobiographical videos. These photos and videos are intended for use by high school students from the Los Angeles Unified School District, with a focus on the 60,000 ninth graders who take health class every year. After the workshop, several of the participants became members of Positively Speaking, to share their stories with youth from all around Los Angeles. These face-to-face encounters and the Through Positive Eyes website are incorporated in AMP!, an arts-based, multiple-intervention, peer education program for youth that focuses on sexual health.
Future plans will take the project to India, Ukraine, and Washington, D.C. before embarking on an international tour.
