New Photography Exhibition at GLBT History Museum Focuses on History of AIDS Activism

"No More Words, We Want Action"; Closing Session of the Sixth

International Conference on AIDS, San Francisco, June 24, 1990.

Photograph by Patrick Clifton (reproduced with permission)

Life and Death in Black and White 

March 5 through July 1, 2012

Reception: Thursday, March 15, 7:00-9:00 pm

The GLBT History Museum

4127 18th Street, San Francisco

A new exhibition at The GLBT History Museum, "Life and Death in Black and White: AIDS Direct Action in San Francisco, 1985-1990," focuses on the work of five queer photographers who documented the emergence of militant AIDS activism in San Francisco through the medium of black-and-white film. With sharp focus and deep compassion, they turned their lenses on their own community, capturing sorrow and outrage, courage and wit, a fierce will to live and a deep commitment to honor the dying and remember the dead.

The exhibition features the work of Jane Philomen Cleland, Patrick  Clifton, Marc Geller, Rick Gerharter and Daniel Nicoletta. Some of their images of AIDS activism have become iconic; others have never before been publicly displayed. All of them portray civil disobedience as a response to discrimination, indifference and official neglect in the face of a fatal epidemic. All bear forceful witness to a time when San Francisco experienced both some of its darkest hours and one of its most inspiring movements for social justice.

  

For more information, visit www.glbthistorymuseum.org