Deadly Consequences of AIDS in Rwanda

From the Ideas section of the Sunday, January 26, 2008, Toronto Star, page ID3, is this article about photographic evidence of the effect of AIDS on people in Rwanda and a cooperative photojournalist project between Rwandan and Canadian photojournalists:

RWANDA
Chronicling the scourge of AIDS

Rwandan photographers learn from the best as they focus in on disease's deadly effects

Christopher Maughan
Special to the Star

Kigali - A weary, elderly woman stands against the wall of her tiny mud hut, huddling three of her grandchildren against her, squinting a bit as sunlight pours in through the doorway. The faded red letters of a French acronym - SIDA - loom large on a poster above her right shoulder, almost as if they're weighing her down.

The shutter snaps of two photographers who have come to take her picture are the only sounds that break an eerie silence. Mukandori, 72, waits patiently for them to finish their work.

She had 12 children, but only one is alive today. "Some died in war, others died of natural causes," she explains through a translator. "But when I remember the ones who died of AIDS, I still feel a deep sorrow."

Mukandori, who has just one name, is a Rwandan left to raise three of her grandchildren as a result of having lost three of her own children to a disease she calls "the scourge of all." She agreed to have her picture taken by Canadian photojournalist Steve Simon and one of his Rwandan counterparts, George Barya. The shoot was part of a unique, unprecedented effort to teach both the Rwandan and Canadian public about HIV-AIDS, a disease that has shattered Mukandori's family and so many others.

Simon is a long-time member of a Canadian photograph collective called Photosensitive. The group was founded in 1990 by former Toronto Star photographer Andrew Stawicki and Peter Robertson a former Star graphics editor. Over the years, they've dedicated themselves to non-profit social documentary projects, staging exhibits on homelessness, child poverty and literacy, to name just a few. Photosensitive current endeavour is their third on HIV-AIDS.

"This is an emergency situation; it's urgent," says Simon, explaining that his hope for the project is that it becomes a call to action for people in the west. "I think that people, when they are aware of it and they do help, they themselves are going to feel very good about doing so.

"If this scourge of AIDS were to hit the Western world the way it's hit Africa and now Asia and other parts, there's no question that it would be pushed up in terms of priorities," he says.

Cynics may wonder whether a simple photo exhibit can really fuel social responsibility, but Photosensitive's track record speaks. A 1996 project on Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children helped raise over $100,000. And a 2005 exhibit on Ontario's first native literacy camp helped secure funding for the opening of 35 more the next year.

For Photosensitive's latest project, seven journalists were in Rwanda documenting the social impact of HIV-AIDS. One photographer took pictures of HIV-positive prostitutes on the streets of Kigali. Another photographed women who contracted HIV as a result of being raped during the 1994 genocide. Others went into anti-retroviral and circumcision clinics and chronicled the latest efforts to stem the spread of the disease.

Stawicki says the key to Photosensitive's work isn't just that it educates or informs. It's that it makes people angry. "If they're angry, maybe they'll do something."

But what makes this year's project unique, Stawicki says, is that for the first time, Photosensitive is contributing to the development of foreign professional journalists. Over the course of their time here, each of the Canadians was paired with a local photographer. The Rwandans learned how to use modern, professional cameras (donated by Photosensitive and Getty Images) to produce images that go beyond traditional news pictures in their depth, quality and resolution. Those images will appear together as photo essays in each of Rwanda's major newspapers.

Local photographer Shyaka Anastase says the Canadian help is sorely needed. "A lot of people died or left the country during the genocide, and for that reason we don't have any great photographers here in Rwanda," he says, speaking in French. Anastase explains that because of the role of media in fuelling the killings, many potential journalists have shied away from the profession. This has left the country's few remaining reporters in charge of both writing articles and taking pictures, and as a result, photography in Rwanda has suffered.

"I used to think this aspect of journalism wasn't that important," says Anastase. "But in the last few days, what I've learned has instilled in me a love for taking pictures and has made me want to really do more."

Anastase has been working with Peter Bregg, a 40-year veteran who's covered everything from the Olympic Games to parliamentary news. Bregg, photo editor at Hello! magazine, says he's impressed with how far his trainee has come in such a short time.

"He's looking now to shoot things that he wouldn't have shot before," says Bregg.

Watching the two working together in the field, it's easy to get a sense of what Bregg is talking about. He's not a heavy-handed coach - instead, he teaches by example. Every so often on a shoot, Bregg will set up at an angle or in a spot that catches Anastase's attention, and Anastase will do his best to mimic the photo. If the results aren't the same, Bregg will take the opportunity to give a quick lesson on lighting, aperture opening, and shutter speed.

"After working with Peter, I think my pictures have much more feeling," says Anastase. "I learned a lot about how to avoid making mistakes after just a few days."

Anastase says he's been so inspired by his experience with Bregg that he hopes to create an association of Rwandan photojournalists in the hope that they might get together to plan more Photosensitive-style documentary projects.

In the meantime, a Photosensitive exhibit at the National University of Rwanda in Butare will serve as inspiration to the next generation of Rwandan journalists. Photosensitive plans to exhibit their work in to provide inspiration of a different sort - not to document, but rather to act.

"Whenever we bring AIDS to the front in Canada, it helps remind people the problem is still there," says Bregg. "And it's not insurmountable. A lot of our pictures will illustrate despair, but a lot will also illustrate hope."

Christopher Maughan accompanied photographers on the Photosensitive project. He is an intern with the Rwanda initiative, a Canadian and Rwandan journalism partnership.