Encountering AIDS 'face to face'

The traveling exhibit "FACE-TO-FACE: An Intimate Response to AIDS in South Africa," created by New York City photographer Ken Wong, opened in Frist Campus Center on Monday through the efforts of the Princeton AIDS Initiative and the Student Global AIDS Campaign.

The display features two 12-by-12 foot panels with black and white sepia-toned portraits of HIV-positive South Africans and several smaller exhibits presenting stories and additional information about AIDS in South Africa.

Wong created the exhibit after traveling to South Africa in 2003 with the support of the Harvard Medical School Division of AIDS. Some of the people he encountered and photographed there became the subjects of his PhotoMosaic, which tells the stories of dozens of South Africans suffering from the HIV/AIDS crisis.

The project focuses on South Africa because of the tragically high number of HIV positive people there, but Wong said he plans to do a second FACE-TO-FACE project in Cambodia as early as this summer. He also hopes to look at the AIDS crisis in other areas of the world, including Haiti, India and Russia, in the future. "We just have to keep doing our project until people realize just how serious this problem is," Wong said.

Wong plans to tour the exhibit for a few years. It has already visited the Mitchner Art Museum, the United Nations and St. John the Divine Church in New York City. Wong described his purpose in creating the exhibit as an attempt to show "how huge the problem is by showing all the portraits."

"As an artist, I want an emotional response," he said. "But on a different level, [I want] people [to] understand that these are people with AIDS, and they people just like anybody else . . . This is what is really happening."

Lindsey Stephens '07, secretary of the Student Global AIDS Campaign, said the exhibit shows a personal side of AIDS. "When you look at the portraits, you feel a direct connection," she said. "It brings it back to reality. Students looking at this will see people their own age [with this disease]." She added that she has already received many positive responses.

Marie Deravil, who works at Frist, appeared emotionally moved as she stood in front of the exhibit, viewing the photographs and reading the subjects' stories.

She expressed disbelief over the large number of photos of HIV positive South Africans.

"Is there any way they can stop that from happening?" Deravil questioned. "And even the kids too. They didn't do anything to deserve that. They are innocent . . . This is misery. They are not supposed to be suffering like that."

A reception featuring a presentation by the artist and a discussion will be held tonight from 7 to 9 p.m. in Frist 302. The event is free and open to the public.

The exhibit will be on display through April 9.