ACTION ALERT 7 July 2000

The Aids 2000 conference committee has banned photographs by an award-winning Dutch photographer on the grounds that the images provided an excessively graphic insight into the dreadfulness of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. According to "Mail & Guardian", the photographer, Geert van Kesteren from Holland, submitted an application early this year to the committee to exhibit his photographs at the Cultural Programme, which forms part of the 13th International Aids Conference. However, the photographs, which were published in "Newsweek" magazine and that are to be published in the new book, Mwendanjangula! Aids in Zambia, have been described by the Aids 2000 committee as "victimological" and not sensitive to the plight of the photographed people. Van Kesteren, whose works have won him Holland's prestigious award, the Holland Photographer of the Year, has also been rejected by the committee on the basis that his photographs, which were all taken in Zambia, would not be read as part of a global picture but instead they would be taken as personal affront."

"Mail & Guardian" said that in a letter, Lynn Dalrymple, one of the Aids 2000 committee's co-ordinators, wrote: "There is an ongoing debate about the use of shocking images for Aids education. It is considered policy of the government and NGO's that shock tactics in the context of South African society and culture are counterproductive and we have avoided this approach."

Van Kesteren lambasted the committee saying: "People cannot continue to treat the HIV/AIDS virus as a taboo because that will not assist in combating the virus." He argued that his photographs were a true reflection of the pandemic in Zambia.

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