15th International AIDS Conference Bangkok, Thailand - July 11-16, 2004

Int Conf AIDS 2004 Jul 11-16; 15:(abstract no. MoOrD1066)

Peters J
PWA, OAN, CTAC, Toronto, Canada

ISSUES: I seroconverted early in the pandemic. In 1984 this illness did not yet own its final name. No one knew how to deal with it. I believed my life was over. I was terrified, confused, and suicidal. The question was: could I find a way to live with AIDS?

DESCRIPTION: Diagnosed in 1985, not knowing who to talk to about it, and fearing that my life would soon end, I was lost in a fog of loneliness and despair until I began to speak about my condition with Dr Andrew Zysman, my late cousin, who was also HIV positive. He encouraged me to turn my photographic interest toward documenting the history of AIDS.<IMG SRC="images/prog/MoOrD1066_IMG01.jpg" border=0><IMG SRC="images/prog/MoOrD1066_IMG02.jpg" border=0><IMG SRC="images/prog/MoOrD1066_IMG03.jpg" border=0>

LESSONS LEARNED: There was much to be learned by following this path. By attending AIDS Conferences around the world, beginning in 1989 at Montreal, I developed a career as a photojournalist. That surprised me, because I didn't believe that I could do anything with a death sentence imposed upon me. My interest in life was rekindled. I learned how to better cope with my illness. Though I grieve for all the people I met, loved, and lost in this struggle for survival, I am at once a member of the Global AIDS Community and a recorder of the evidence we witness in AIDS healthcare issues, politics, activism and protests, business and society. My work has been exhibited and published at the 1996 Vancouver AIDS Conference, in galleries, books, journals, and magazines. This has made the spectre of AIDS easier to bear.

RECOMMENDATIONS: Any person living with HIV/AIDS can empower his or her self by cultivating their personal means of expression. This may benefit the psyche and strengthen the will to live. Everyone has a point of view about the subject of AIDS and it is important for everyone who can, to make their voice heard, whether in the Arts, or by helping others.

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MoOrD1066

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