Magnum Blog / The Access to Life Campaign - the photo blog of Magnum Photos

For 25 years, AIDS has ravaged the lives and livelihoods of millions of people. Since the early 1980s, nearly 30 million people have died from AIDS. But over the past few years, a quiet global revolution has enabled millions of people infected by HIV to live healthy lives.

In the early 1990s, when antiretroviral drugs became available, AIDS was transformed from a certain death sentence to a manageable chronic disease–but only for some. The expense of the drugs and their distribution prevented 95 percent of those living with HIV from getting access to them. International outrage that millions were dying because of economic disparity helped reduce drug prices and to create the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in 2002. Doctors and healthcare workers around the world have adapted procedures to settings where people often could not access even the most basic care. Already, millions of lives which otherwise might have been lost are being saved.

In Access to Life, eight Magnum photographers portray people in nine countries around the world before and four months after they began antiretroviral treatment for AIDS. Paolo Pellegrin in Mali, Alex Majoli in Russia, Larry Towell in Swaziland and South Africa, Jim Goldberg in India, Gilles Peress in Rwanda, Jonas Bendiksen in Haiti, Steve McCurry in Vietnam and Eli Reed in Peru. Here are faces, voices, and stories representing those millions of people who by now would be dead if not for access to free antiretroviral drugs–people who are living with HIV, working, caring for their children, and experiencing the joys and struggles of being alive. But there are also the stories of those for whom treatment came too late or where tuberculosis or other diseases brought their lives to an end – showing how the fight to bring access to AIDS treatment is a difficult one, often filled with setbacks as well as success.

Please visit the Access To Life website to view and listen to all stories. We very much hope you'll find this presentation interesting as well as insightful. Please help to spread the word by telling your friends about it, e-mailing them the link to the Access To Life website or by using one of our press images together with a link to the site on your website or blog.

Reader comments (15)

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Qui ne dit mot consent.

Comment posted by deghia on June 15, 2008

BIEN LE BONJOUR A TOUS... COURAGE... DIGNITE... SILENCE... RESPECT
@ +
PHILIPPE

Comment posted by Rigoreau Philippe on June 15, 2008

hi
happy
plz see to weblog me
tnx

Comment posted by aboutaleb nadri on June 15, 2008

First, it seems very bleak. But encouraged by a symbol of hope in the end of story.

Comment posted by Mikhail Protasevich on June 15, 2008

Fantastic iniciative

Comment posted by Grafialuzju on June 15, 2008

Is very important stay in contact with the real world and see it through the eyes of these amazing photographers, that subjects goes direct from the eyes to ours earth.
We should keep walking.

Comment posted by Juan De la Cruz on June 16, 2008

very very much encouraging!

Comment posted by Wahid Adnan on June 16, 2008

For me the imagery used dominates toooo much,capturing moments of happiness can empathise so much more

Comment posted by Peter Denega on June 16, 2008

I browsed the site of Access to Life......an outstanding initiative. I believe that this initiative will make people from rest of the world more and more co-operative and supportive to victims of AIDS and other diseases....

Comment posted by Wahid Adnan on June 17, 2008

Correction:"...thats subjects goes direct from ours eyes to ours HEARTS".

Comment posted by Juan De la Cruz on June 17, 2008

Hi Alex,

a very moving story. The approach is beautiful..instead of trying to show the macro you show the micro, the personal...very very touching, the quiet, loving moments are amazing...a very powerful story that is about HIV but really about hope and love in spite of HIV. I love the work. I remember meeting you in Seoul, at the Karaoke with David and have since been paying attention to your work more and more.

Comment posted by Rafal Pruszynski on June 17, 2008

thank you

Comment posted by mirc on June 18, 2008

A good campaign and important work by the magnum photographers. I just linked it on my photo weblog.

Comment posted by Timo Nowack on June 22, 2008

Its you from the first shot. Great site

Comment posted by Supreet Sethi on June 23, 2008

beautiful campaign with good foto presentation.
Regards from Yogyakarta Indonesia.

Comment posted by bram antareja on July 8, 2008