World AIDS Day Post: Looking at "Scarred by Stigma"

Since World AIDS Day is Dec. 1, I wanted to repost the images of a few Mississippians I met this year. Living in New York, I tend to think that AIDS stigma is a prejudice of the past. When I visited a few burgeoning AIDS activists in March, however, I learned that many HIV-positive people in the South are still consistently rejected by their families, friends and neighbors. I had some pretty powerful conversations with Victoria (above) and Earnest, David and Jackie (below), all of whom were brave enough to allow me to photograph them. This project was published by HIV Plus Magazine and featured on the Human Rights Watch web site.