These portraits and interviews were initially produced by photojournalist Katja Heinemann for Time Magazine in 2006, as both a photo and multimedia essay to draw attention to the aging demographics of people living with the virus in the United States. Publication was timed to coincide with the release of ACRIA‘s groundbreaking ROAH study during the 25th anniversary year of the epidemic. Nine individuals from Illinois, Florida, New Jersey and New York were interviewed and photographed for this initial publication (Time Magazine Sunday, Aug. 06, 2006).
Building on these initial photographs and interviews, spurred on by the urgency that much too little information about Aging with HIV was publicly available, The Graying of AIDS was conceived as a three-pronged educational campaign. Naomi Schegloff, MPH (Project Co-Director, Health Educator/Writer) led this redesign to increase sensitivity and awareness about the issues confronting people over 50 at risk for, or living with, HIV and AIDS.
In addition to this web site, a companion magazine was created to educate health care and social service professionals about this aging epidemic while connecting people over 50 and those who care about them with basic information, terminology, and resources.
Starting in 2012, the new portrait series Stories from an Aging Pandemic expanded the scope of the project to include global perspectives, working with more than 100 older people living positive at three consecutive International AIDS conferences. In 2014, first a bus shelter awareness campaign was added in collaboration with New York’s ACRIA, and in 2015 we created the Well Beyond HIV outreach campaign for Walgreens that toured the United States.
These testimonies and portraits now live on as an archive that is freely accessible via this website.
Feature article in La Repubblica Delle Donne, Italy, March 2007.