Exploitation

There was a photo essay in Life Magazine recently talking about this Iconic image from 1990. The article was photographer Therese Frare's way of being able to show more of the story that most people did not get to see. This photograph was taken with in an hour before David Kirby died. When the poster was used in an ad campaign United Colors of Benetton it struck up controversy because people thought it was exploiting this man before his death. Contrary to what people believe his parents wanted these images in his last moments taken because not only had they spent time with Therese but they thought in some way it would help with this cause. Therese also did not and still does not receive any money from the usage of this photo. I thought this article was a great glimpse into the world of AIDS and of photographers who chose to document this time in history. It is not the same as documenting a war, it is a much more personal event.
There is another photographer Nicholas Nixon, who has a book called People with AIDS that deals with 15 people living with and dying from AIDS also from the early 1990's.