Nomfumaneko Yako, 15, sits on her bed the day before she is due to start her first dose of antiretroviral treatment in Eastern Cape, South Africa. GIDEON MENDEL

Politics of Exposure The Visual Economy of HIV/AIDS in South Africa

When tracking the progression of Gideon Mendel’s photos, there is a shift from representations of suffering, pain, and death of people living with HIV/AIDS to those in which he aims to show people in a ‘positive, individualized way’.  South Africa has the highest HIV prevalence in the world, claiming 20 per cent of the global population of people living with HIV, a whopping 7.7 million. Following its independence in 1994, South Africa's responses and representation of the HIV/AIDS epid
 

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