Terrible Beauty

Our immune system is a “second skin” that protects us from infections and cancer.  It helps keep the outside world out. However, HIV destroys cells of the immune system and, as this happens, this "second skin" starts to fail. That is why people with HIV gradually get sick and die from unusual infections and cancer. However, when a person gets infected with HIV something remarkable happens in their body.  The tissues and cells of the immune system go from an orderly, uniform, consistent appearance that gives a feeling of balance and order to a bizarre explosion of chaos and color that is both compelling and beautiful.  In his poem “Easter 1916” William Butler Yeats describes the pointless sacrifice that people make in war as a “Terrible Beauty”.  The same can be said for how HIV transforms our body in a way that leads to sickness and death.

These photographs were made from the tissues of people living with HIV.