A familiar image popped up via Huffington Post today. It was a link to a LIFE Magazine page about the famous photograph of a dying, Christ-like AIDS patient and activist, David Kirby, in his last moments, being desperately comforted by family and friends. It ran famously in a Benetton ad, and was instrumental in spreading the word about the crisis. The picture was made by a then-grad journalism student, Therese Frare, who said, "I asked David if he minded me taking pictures, and he said, 'That's fine, as long as it's not for personal profit.' To this day I don't take any money for the picture. But David was an activist, and he wanted to get the word out there about how devastating AIDS was to families and communities. Honestly, I think he was a lot more in tune with how important the photos might become." Frare pauses, and laughs. "At the time, I was like, 'Yeah, who's going to see these pictures, anyway?'" Today, we are able to see the other pictures she made, before and after his death, and hear more about what those times were like.
The images and story can be seen here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/22/the-photo-that-brought-ai_n_655729.html
