Carolyn Jones's vivid and life-affirming portraits capture people from all backgrounds-children and grandmothers, men and women of all races-living with HIV and AIDS.

It is estimated that over one million people in the United States would test positive for the Human Immune Virus, and many others are already suffering from Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. A common-and harmful-misconception holds that AIDS is an instant death sentence but, in fact, testing positive for HIV does not mean immediate illness. Carolyn Jones has collaborated with George DeSipio, Jr., and Michael Liberatore (co-founders of the project), and the seventy-three people who volunteered to pose for these photographs in an inspiring effort to change the way we think about AIDS. Jones's compelling portraits have the power to profoundly alter perceptions about this disease, and about the way we all live and die. AIDS poses challenging questions that we must each grapple with, whether healthy or not. These captivating pictures illustrate the self-confidence and wisdom of ordinary people coping with an extraordinary fate, facing their mortality, questioning their priorities, and living life to the fullest. Their energy, courage, and dignity in the face of such adversity offer a vital lesson in how to embrace life, day by day. Their faces and their stories are proof that AIDS doesn't look like anyone-it looks like, and ultimately is, all of us.

Design Industries Foundation for AIDS (DIFFA) is the sole recipient of the royalties from the sale of Living Proof. For additional information regarding Living Proof and the Design Industries Foundation for AIDS, please call DIFFA: (212) 727-3100.

About the Author

A fashion and portrait photographer for Esquire, Interview, and Italian Vogue, among many other publications, Carolyn Jones participated as a photographer and driver in the Paris/Dakar Rally and Bruce Jenner's Pride in America Rally, and made the television documentary Women . . . on Family. She lives in New York City, where she also has her studio.

Reviews
"There is a light, a confidence, a calm, a dignity, a celebration of life that all these faces share. Thanks to Carolyn Jones for showing us the face of AIDS we are too afraid to see." - Susan Sarandon "The buoyancy...is magical, as if everyone concerned is embarking together on a journey that could transform the hard realities of so many lives." - Carol Squiers, American Photo "The face of courage is a face of beauty. Let us look, liger, and learn." - Lynn Redgrave "An inspiring, inspiriting book." - Susan Sontag "I am stunned by this collection of photographed humans and the revelation of their shared truth. I cheer; I grieve; and I seek an unknown word to express the magnitude of what I feel in my heart having experienced Living Proof." - Tommy Tune



Book Information
ISBN 9780896600799
Author Carolyn Jones
Format Hardback
Page Count 88
Imprint Artabras
Publisher Abbeville Press Inc.,U.S.