Faces of AIDS is Jim Wigler's exhibit of 101 people infected with the AIDS virus during the mid 1980's. To humanize the epidemic, he took a close up portrait of each person smiling, looking wonderful and looking awesomely human. The main impetus was to ameliorate the public's fear of getting to close to and helping neighbors who were suffering.
Eventually, after three years of work, Faces of AIDS opened at the San Mateo Country Fair. After that it went on to Grace Cathedral and the Moscone Center (both in San Francisco). It ended up with the Names Project Quilt for touring around the country.
Faces of AIDS acts as a living memorial to those early casualties who perished in the epidemic.
Assisting Jim with the Faces of AIDS campaign is Eric Schultz. Jim took all the portraits. Eric is co-ordinating all the printing, dry mounting, archiving, website design as well as overseeing the fundraising logistics.