The Ward by Gideon Mendel: photographing the humanity about patients with Aids at a London hospital

Abstract

In 1993, Gideon Mendel spent several week photographing patients at the first dedicated Aids ward in a hospital in UK, where carried out an innovation project. Aware of something special was happening in these place he photograhed many patients, assisted by their next of kin and centre staff. An important images for demands in order to remove the varrieres and prejudices that HIV infected cause on the society. Within a genre that flourished during the hardest years of the pandemic, Gideon beared a different point of view, as testimony of the infected, focused on the humanity and love between the portayed. The borrowing images that make up this project named The Ward, were a challenging task for Mendel, photographer compromised by the dramas that haunt our society.