PHOTOGRAPHY
Picturing Progress in AIDS Treatments Acclaimed photojournalist documents families affected by HIV and AIDS. By SAM BYRD
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ust in time for World AIDS Day, Pulitzer Prize winner and former Houston Chronicle photographer Smiley Pool has published a book of photographs documenting the lives of HIV-impacted children and their communities from the era of the newly discovered HIV medicines. Through the White Door is a 200-page love letter from the photojournalist, meant to show the faces and stories of people living with the virus. “The big hope is that [by reading about] the lives of these people, we can open viewers’ hearts,” Pool says. “It’s always been my hope that through photography you can expose people to things in a way that might connect with them. I hope they can get connected with these characters and see their lives in a way they haven’t seen before.” Pool didn’t actually set out to make a book at first. Instead, the ambitious project was the result of a chance photo assignment he was given while working for the Houston Chronicle 36 NOVEMBER 2019 | OutSmartMagazine.com
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in the 1990s. Pool’s editor tapped him to follow a medical writer on a trip to Romania for a feature on a new treatment for HIV. What began as a story turned into an experience that altered the course of Pool’s life after meeting Dr. Mark Kline, who was researching new protease-inhibitor treatments. “Mark wound up with the very first protease-inhibitor trial for pediatrics,” Pool recalls. “Mark had 12 kids in his care on a study. At that moment in history, the protease inhibitors were in trials in adults and showing tremendous progress. This was the ‘Lazarus’ moment for HIV. Mark had gone from treating symptoms to watching kids get better. Then he sees all these kids in Romania who need care.” Romania was suffering from the aftermath of Nicolae Ceausescu’s regime that had created a large population of HIV-positive people. Kline introduced Pool to a group of young Romanians who agreed to be captured on film for the assignment. Once back in the United States, the Chronicle ran an 8-page feature on the story. However, there was little public
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response to that initial coverage. Relentless in his pursuit of new treatments, Kline went back to Romania for another trial. Pool wanted to cover the topic once more, so he pitched his editor on the idea of comparing the lives of children in Romania with children receiving protease-inhibitor treatment in the U.S. “Let’s show what is possible in our community, and how we can bridge the gap with access to this care. It took a number of different patients [before we found] the right family and the right patient. We had to have consent, then we had to get consent of those around the patient,” Pool says. “Somehow, it landed me in the living room of a housing unit at Goodfellow Air Force Base with the Queen family. They were coming to Houston to be a part of Dr. Kline’s trial. I had a life-changing experience with this amazingly strong, open family who let me come in and share their lives.” After several photo shoots, both in the U.S. and Romania, the Chronicle ran a 24-page section titled “Worlds Apart.” This time, people
