Coinciding with Aperture’s Spring 2009 title Access to Life copublished by Magnum Photos, The Stenersen Museum in Oslo presents an exhibition of works from eight Magnum photographers Jonas Bendiksen, Jim Goldberg, Alex Majoli, Steve McCurry, Paolo Pellegrin, Gilles Peress, Eli Reed, and Larry Towell. The work presents people in nine countries around the world before and four months after they began antiretroviral treatment for AIDS. The emotionally charged presentation of their faces, voices, and stories is illustrative of millions of people who would have died without access to free antiretroviral drugs.

Click here to view Access to Life via Magnum in Motion.

Click here to purchase your copy of Access to Life.

Access to Life
Saturday, June 20—Sunday, August 9, 2009
The Stenersen Museum
Munkedamsveien 15
N-0116 Oslo, Norway
+47 23 49 36 00

© Gilles Peress/Magnum Photos

For the past 25 years, the AIDS pandemic has inflicted excruciating pain upon humanity, having ravaged the lives of millions of people around the world. Over the past few years, however, a quiet global revolution has enabled millions infected by HIV to live healthy lives through the free antiretroviral treatment program initiated by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

In Access to Life, eight of the world’s leading photojournalists, all members of Magnum Photos, follow thirty individuals in nine countries before, and four months after, they began the antiretroviral treatment, documenting the transformative effect on their bodies, their lives, and the lives of their families. This dream team of photographers was assigned to the following countries: Jonas Bendiksen (Haiti), Jim Goldberg (India), Alex Majoli (Russia), Steve McCurry (Vietnam), Paolo Pellegrin (Mali), Gilles Peress (Rwanda), Eli Reed (Peru), and Larry Towell (South Africa and Swaziland). These powerful images reveal the patients’ complex struggle against the disease with great subtlety and hope.

Coinciding with the release of Access to Life (Aperture, Magnum Photos and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, April 2009), Aperture and The New School are pleased to present a compelling panel discussion with photojournalists Gilles Peress and Kristen Ashburn; Mark Lubell, the Bureau Chief for the Magnum Photos New York and former picture editor of Time magazine MaryAnne Golon; and moderator Fred Ritchin, Associate Chair of the Department of Photography and Imaging at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, and Director of PixelPress.

Following this panel discussion, Aperture will host a reception and book signing on Thursday, April 23 with Magnum photographers in attendance.

Access to Life: Photojournalism on AIDS
Panel Discussion
Wednesday, April 22, 7:00 pm

FREE

The New School
Tishman Auditorium
66 West 12th Street
New York, New York

Access to Life
Book Signing
Thursday, April 23, 7:00 pm

FREE

Aperture Gallery
547 West 27th Street
New York, New York
(212) 505-5555