photographs
Evidence wa ka Ngobeni
The Aids 2000 conference committee has banned photographs by an award-winning Dutch photographer on the grounds that the images provide an excessively graphic insight into the dreadfulness of the HIV/Aids epidemic.
The photographer, Geert van Kesteren, from Holland, submitted an application early this year to the committee to exhibit his photographs at the Cultural Programme, which forms part of the 13th International Aids Conference.
However, the photographs, which were published in Newsweek magazine and that are to be published in the new book, Mwendanjangula! Aids in Zambia, have been described by the Aids 2000 committee as “victimological” and not sensitive to the plight of the photographed people.
Van Kesteren, whose works have won him Holland’s prestigious award, the Holland Photographer of the Year, has also been rejected by the committee on the basis that his photographs, which were all taken in Zambia, “would not be read as part of a global picture but instead they would taken as a personal affront”.
In a letter, Lynn Dalrymple, one of the Aids 2000 committee’s co-ordinators, wrote: “There is an ongoing debate about the use of shocking images for Aids education.
“It is considered policy of the government and NGOs that shock tactics in the context of South African society and culture are counterproductive and we have avoided this approach.”
Dalrymple also said that “many South African audiences are unsophisticated and not used to this kind of realism”.
But Van Kesteren this week lambasted the committee, saying: “People cannot continue to treat the HIV/Aids virus as a taboo because that will not assist in combating the virus.”
Van Kesteren also argued that his photographs are a true reflection of the HIV/Aids pandemic in Zambia.
Van Kesteren said that his images, contrary to the committee’s views, “are not shocking as they do not reveal wounds or dead bodies killed by the HIV/Aids disease but what you see is reality.”
“The photographs go far beyond Aids, looking at the links that are related to the pandemic and not just the victims dying and so on … it’s more about living with it.”