“Artwork loves everyone. So it is actually an easy way (with which) to disseminate our message.”
So said Masbah U Ahmed, photographer from Bangladesh, who presented photographs he took of people at higher risk for HIV infection in Bangladesh. His exhibit is actually not solely focusing on HIV. Instead, it also touches on climate change, which is affecting the lives of many people in informal settlements, often putting them at risk for HIV infection. As such, the intersectional aspect of HIV is highlighted – i.e. that it is not a singular issue.
These poorer LGBTQIA people in Bangladesh “are also climate victims,” Ahmed said, adding that this creates “double stigma.” As poor people, they have to deal with lack of toilet facilities, for instance, which exposes them to abuses – e.g. transgender women share toilets with several others, and since these facilities are not properly constructed, they are then literally exposed to others, some forcing themselves on these transgender women.
What art – in his case, photography – can do is help “humanize” these people, including those living with HIV, said Ahmed.
“Artworks (create) positive notions about people,” he said. When looking at the subjects in the photographs, “people can see that they are also human beings. They also have dreams. They also have partners and other family members.”
