Alon Reininger began studying the mysterious cancer that ended the life of American homosexuals in 1981, in the form of a report on the Veterans Hospital in New York, before the disease was baptized with the name of "AIDS". He was one of the first photojournalists to discuss the issue and decided to address it despite the formidable obstacles he faced.
At first, AIDS was seen as something that only affected the homosexual population since the rest of the affected people were subject to all kinds of prejudice and discrimination. Reininger had trouble finding sick people willing to be photographed, as well as finding a magazine that would take the report seriously. As the initial sense of perplexity in the gay community arose with anger against the government and the media, photojournalists went in search of sensational images of dying AIDS patients, instead of pro-life affirmations. of the patients who fight against the disease. A year and a half after Reininger made his iconic photographs of Ken Meeks, a renewed Life magazine published the full report for the first time.
ORIGINAL PUBLICATION OF THE WORLDPRESS PHOTO 2005 BOOK