It was upon a visit to South Africa in late 1988 that my close cousin who was living in the USA disclosed to me that he was HIV positive – I was stunned as he looked so healthy and happy and not at all ill. I asked him what I could do to help him from such a distance and he said “Please, you need to put a face to HIV/AIDS in South Africa.” Hmm, I thought, as a photographer this can’t be too difficult. Wrong!
I started inquiring through my various networks about who was open about their status and came up with nobody. However HIV/AIDS education programmes were emerging and this is where I began. I met Mary Crewe who was then running CHAT (the City Health Acting Troupe), a group of health-workers who performed at various Johannesburg city health clinics. I documented them for a while – then there was Puppets Against AIDS, developed by the African Research Puppetry Programme. The group toured the country and I went along as the photographer filming every show and workshop. Finally this led to Sacred Heart House in Kensington, where I finally found HIV-positive people willing to tell their stories and to be photographed.
On Christmas Day 1990 I met Johan van Rooyen and his partner Noel Pillay – they came to deliver the Christmas lunch to the folk at the hospice. Johan was very open about his HIV status and after several conversations I asked him if he was prepared to be photographed, once a month, in a location of his choice and have the images and his story published. He was very excited and said he wanted to be photographed until the day he died – I agreed to this, even though I found it most difficult at the end to be behind the camera with a dying man as subject. When he was dying I asked him to squeeze my hand if he wanted me to continue and he squeezed my hand. Thus I have images of him lying on his deathbed, at his funeral and at the wake thereafter. I felt like a voyeur but realized this was what he wanted.
In the late 1990s, when Justice Edwin Cameron went public about his HIV status, I realised there must be many more people out there who were living openly. At this point I was part of a team of photographers and journalists working for the Beyond Awareness campaign, a government initiative run by CADRE. The idea was to find “positive” HIV/AIDS stories and get them published in the local media – this was not about death and dying but rather about living with HIV.
Living Openly – 31 HIV Positive South Africans Share Their Stories – was first exhibited at the International AIDS conference in Durban in 2000. I had worked with journalist Susan Fox on the project – she did the interviews whilst I did the black-and-white portraits. Many of my photo colleagues and friends were stunned – how could I work in such a depressing environment? I assured them that in fact I was inspired by all these people who had relieved themselves of the secret of being HIV positive by going public. The exhibition was turned into a pop-up travelling version and has been used extensively as an educational tool. A booklet with the photos and interviews was printed, and when stocks ran out there was a demand for more – they were handed out for free at clinics.
The next project I worked on for CADRE was Conversations – HIV and Families. Twelve families affected by AIDS formed part of this – once again inspirational stories and strong people. This comprised of interviews and follow-up workshops conducted by Betsi Pendry. I photographed portraits and photo essays of each family, and formed a solid bond with the family members.
In between all this, I created many AIDS-related photo essays, but the last one was the Conversations project which I completed in March 2005. In early April 2005 I was diagnosed with lung cancer – as a non-smoker I was shocked but inspired by all the HIV-positive people I had met along my journey as a documentary photographer.
About Gisele
Gisele Wulfsohn is a freelance photographer specialising in portraiture, education, health and gender issues. She studied graphic fine art at the Johannesburg College of Art. After working for The Star newspaper, Gisele was employed by Style magazine and Leadership magazine, and then joined AFRAPIX – a photographic collective that documented social issues and the anti-apartheid struggle.
Gisele helped to document the first democratic elections in South Africa. She was picture editor/photographer for The South African Women's Health Book; took photographs for a children’s counting book, entitled One Child, One Seed, set in rural KwaZulu Natal; and wrote and photographed Bongani's Day: From Dusk to Dawn in a South African City.
Gisele has always been interested in social issues and her reflection above on her work with AIDS shows her commitment to recording the stories of people who are socially excluded. Many of the early AIDS Reviews, which form part of the Re(views) calendar, used Gisele’s photographs and it is for this reason that the CSA is honouring her body of work on AIDS and acknowledging her ongoing contribution to the CSA.
Gisele’s photographs have been published internationally in publications such as Der Spiegel (Germany), Marie Claire (UK, Germany, Poland, Hong Kong), The Lancet, Los Angeles Times, Mother Jones, The Economist and New Internationalist, as well as in numerous local specialist and general publications. She lives in Johannesburg and is married to Mark Turpin. They have twin sons, Samuel and Joseph.
Postscript
Sadly, Gisele died in December 2011 of the cancer she had been diagnosed with some years ago, but not before she had seen, and loved, this calendar we bring to you on our website. We invite you to enjoy the images and legacy of Gisele.
