| Summary: | The portrayal of HIV/AIDS in photographic imagery provides a powerful foundation from which to
examine how one can interpret and understand text through the use of images, and how images have
the ability to influence the meaning of text in an uninhibited fashion. The representation of the HIV/AIDS
epidemic is considered, not through metaphors of language but rather metaphors of visual
representations, along with substantiating themes such as stigma, stereotyping and visual markers of
the disease. These themes are used to explore the way in which Sontagian metaphoric representations
are substantiated by selection of Gideon Mendel’s photographic collection. This disease marks the
infected visually, often with lesions or emaciation, and leads one to consider a visual explanation in
order to understand text around the disease. Rather than using text to decipher images, this study
reflects on the use of images, namely photographic images, to decipher text. The complex relationship
between image and text is explored through an analysis of Gideon Mendel’s photographic collection,
A Broken Landscape, as well as Susan Sontag’s AIDS and Its Metaphors. The World Press Photo
catalogue is used as a visual framework from which to analyse and criticise this visual representation of
the disease, and the way it has been covered and presented since the 1980s. A selection of
photographic images from Mendel’s A Broken Landscape is used to understand Sontag’s textual
metaphoric approach toward disease, and specifically HIV/AIDS. Visual representations of HIV/AIDS
give transparency and understanding to textual representations of disease as an alternative of using
text to read images. Using images to decipher text illustrates a contemporary method of
understanding, unlocking a broader meaning rather than relying on prescribed (textual) meaning.
Key words: HIV/AIDS, Text, Image, Stigma, Stereotype, Photography, Sontag, Mendel, Visual Analysis
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