with , and dying from , AIDS ” and “ across all levels of government people with AIDS witnessed a failure to respond to the epidemic and the needs it produced ” ( 2018 : 96 ). This governmental inaction contributed also to a retrocession in the gay liberation front , as also noted by Brier : “ While President Reagan said almost nothing to the public about AIDS during his eight years in office , people who worked for the administration did a great deal to develop a response to AIDS based in ideological opposition to homosexuality ” ( Brier , 2018 : 96 ).
Figure 2 : Screenshots of the page " THE AIDS MEMORIAL ", available on Instagram
Contrasting the issues of misrepresentation analysed in this essay , I would like to suggest a modern example of remembrance and portrait of the crisis and victims ’ narratives . Sharing the many stories of the lives lost to the crisis , The Aids Memorial Instagram page ( Fig . 2 ), relies on numerous pictures , ‘ pre-disease ’, from personal archives of victims and their family and friends , accompanied by personal and touching captions . This beautiful and touching memorial , fulfils most of the flawed topics in Ken Meeks portrait , explored in this essay . Although conveyed in very distinct mediums and years apart , this comparison is not to entirely antagonise the two rather offer evidence to some of the issues raised in the analysis .
“ Ken Meeks , Patient With AIDS , Being Cared For By A Friend , San Francisco , California ”, is nonetheless a beautiful and striking photograph . It has a strong relationship with death and that connotation directly impacts any possible readings . There is also a strong emphasis on Ken ’ s body and his state of pain , falling into common traces of atrocity and shock imagery in general . Several formal elements and most importantly Ken ’ s gaze , resonate louder than the visual realm and can be better understood ‘ listened ’ rather than ‘ seen ’. By critically analysing the photograph , some issues regarding the representation of Ken Meeks himself and the AIDS epidemic in general , must be considered and challenged . Factoring these notions , the importance of the image , one of the first of its kind , and the challenging political landscape it faced , should not be undermined .
BIBLIOGRAPHY : Altman , L . ( 2011 ), 30 Years In , We Are Still Learning From AIDS . [ online ] NewYorkTimes . Available at : https :// www . nytimes . com / 2011 / 05 / 31 / health / 31 aids . html
Barthes , R . ( 1993 ), Camera Lucida . London : Vintage , pp . 16-28 .
Brier , J . ( 2018 ), Aids and Action ( 1980 – 1990s ). In : D . Romesburg , ed ., The Routledge History of Queer America , 1st ed . New York : Routledge .
Bulzone , M . ( 1988 ), Contact Press Images , Graphis Inc , New York .
Campt , T . ( 2017 ), ‘ Listening to images ’. Duke University Press
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