Getting people to talk about HIV or AIDS in the province is a challenge, even though the province has a rate of infection higher than the national average. A new exhibition at the Community Partners Gallery, Photo Voice, is about raising awareness about HIV can mean in someone’s life.
Rebecca Genovy with 601 Outreach and Deanna Bartok HIV Strategy Coordinator with the Sunrise Health Region say that they want to engage people to explore the issues surrounding HIV among people.
Participants were given cameras, and told to go out and take pictures that could express their experiences living with HIV or having someone close to them with HIV. The end result depicts a wide range of emotion, from people hopeful about their life and future to those who have lost someone who they cared about. Genovy says that was the goal, because they wanted to depict a full picture of what living with HIV can mean.
“We were happy that the images did reflect the spectrum of experiences and emotions, and does really communicate that there is hope for people with HIV, and in the past it has been quite bleak, and that’s reflected in some of the photographs, but with treatment and support there really is hope and life for those living with HIV,” Genovy says.
Saskatchewan, and rural Saskatchewan in particular, is a place to focus awareness efforts says Bartok, because Saskatchewan has the highest rate of HIV infection in the country, one and a half times the national rate.
“We don’t think it’s here, we don’t think anybody is living with HIV, but there are certainly folks that are. They are very isolated and it’s important for those individuals to have a voice and share their life.”
Sharing their life also means sharing the challenges that come with getting diagnosed with HIV in a rural areas, with some photos discussing the isolation some of the participants feel.
“It certainly is different than living in an urban centre. There are a lot more resources and a lot more support, people seem more open to discuss HIV. In rural and remote, there are a lot more barriers,” Bartok says.
The goal of Photo Voice is to get people talking about HIV in the area, because a lack of awareness is one of the biggest problems.
“We don’t talk about it and that’s the problem, that leads to fear and stigma in the community. The more we provoke people with our ideas and thoughts it will certainly go a long way towards breaking down those barriers for people,” Bartok says.
Getting people to talk about it is another reason for going with an art project, because it allows for a more indirect approach, Bartok says.
“It’s a more indirect way to get a message out and educate, as opposed to directly talking about it. Presentations in the community are sometimes not well attended because people think “it doesn’t affect me, how does it affect me?” But in reality it all affects us, and there are so many people who are living with HIV across Canada and don’t even know it, twenty five per cent of the population are unaware because they’re not getting tested... When you do something that’s not direct presentations, it certainly does educate.”
Genovy believes that it’s also a way keep the focus on the way people are affected, rather than the medical reality that HIV represents.
“It turns the attention away from a virus and back to a person, and humanizes it.”
Photo Voice will be running at the Community Partners Gallery until April 30.
