Bill Bytsura
When my partner, Randy, died of AIDS complications in 1989, I was filled with fear, anger, and helplessness. I didn’t have a support system to see me through this tragedy, or to help me make sense of it — or to respond to it. Then a friend told me about the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, or ACT UP, which met every night at the New York City LGBT Community Center on West 13th Street in Manhattan.

There I found a home and a support system of people going through the same experience I was. The intensity of the first few meetings was intimidating. I would leave after about 30 minutes, thinking that everyone was crazy and I would never fit in. But I kept going back and began to understand the scope, tragedy, and the urgency of fighting the AIDS Crisis. Being a professional photographer, I eventually joined the Media Committee. I felt that maybe I could do something with my camera that could help in some way.

The idea for the AIDS activist project began during an ACT UP meeting. I was listening to presentations by these people who had become my family, these intelligent, brave and heartfelt people. It struck me that the media and public did not see them as I did, preferring to call them sinners, lawbreakers and disease carriers. I wanted the world to see these people as I did: Heroes fighting for their lives, putting their bodies on the line, searching for a cure.
Moises Agosto
Mona Bennett
Dene Greenough (left)
and Floyd Martin
Hal Haner

Knowing the power of the photographic image, I decided to photograph as many of my comrades as possible. Not in the streets protesting, but in quiet moments, so that people could see their reflective sides. I began photographing ACT UP members in my East Village photo studio including co-founder Larry Kramer.

But ACT UP was now expanding far beyond the founding chapter in New York City, spreading across the United States and around the world. So I traveled to San Francisco, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Atlanta, Miami and Puerto Rico to photograph other ACT UP members. I then had the opportunity to shoot portraits at the 1992 International AIDS Conference in Amsterdam, and at the 1993 conference in Berlin. I also traveled to Paris to photograph members of ACT UP Paris.

This project became my obsession. I was reminded of the urgency every time one of my subjects had died, another fallen soldier to the epidemic.

From 1989 to 1998, I took photos for the AIDS activist project. Then, after a decade of AIDS activism, I placed my work in storage. But I knew that it deserved to be seen. In 2011, Fales Library and Collections acquired the entire collection of 225 portraits, personal statements, and negatives, where it is now part of The Downtown Collection.

In the past few years, I have been shocked and saddened that people have forgotten the epidemic, governments are reducing their AIDS budgets and transmissions are rising again. I realized that it was time to bring the AIDS activist project to the world as a coffee-table style book — both as a memorial to those we have lost and to inspire a new generation to renew the battle to end AIDS. I am grateful to Marvin Taylor, head of Fales Library, for supporting me in my mission.

I have launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds to publish the AIDS activist project. I welcome your support. Help me make this dream a reality.

Watch a video about the Kickstarter campaign:


Bill Bytsura is a professional photographer and an ACT UP member. This article was originally published on theaidsactivistproject.org. For more information and to contribute, click here.