"Picture: Positivity" Exhibit: Kristin Lowery

28

Waikiki, Hawaii/San Jose

Kristin lights her fourth cigarette of the morning as she watches her dog, Dahmer, run after squirrels in the park. Dahmer is a 7 ½-year-old Labrador-pit bull-rottweiler mix.

Kristin’s vibrant blue hair, double septum piercings, and various tattoos may catch one’s eye in suburban San Jose. But she’s best characterized by her animated laughter, cheerful smiles and of course, her beloved Dahmer. “Yes, like the serial killer,” she says.

Kristin and Dahmer moved to San Jose about a year-and-a-half ago from Waikiki, Hawaii. “I moved because I was very, very sick. I was going to die from the virus,” she says. Kristin’s liver and kidney were failing and she was hospitalized for three-and-a-half months. She had been diagnosed with HIV several years before. “My ex-boyfriend got tested when he got locked up and then I got tested,” she says. “I didn’t get HIV from needles; I got it because I fell in love.”

Kristin regularly visits her doctor now and has lived free from drugs and alcohol for the past year and three months. “I was a hardcore alcoholic from age 13 until I was 20,” she says. “When I was 20 I started using prescription pills. Shortly after that I moved on to heroin.”  But her life has taken a U-turn from the past and she has lived in her home in San Jose longer than any time since age 13.

Kristin’s days are spent taking Dahmer out on walks, mainly to Blossom Hill park, which she fondly calls “my stomping grounds.” Kristin and Dahmer spend their time exploring, chasing after squirrels and taking care of each other. “Dahmer’s my only friend since I came out to San Jose,” she says.

By now Kristin has lit another cigarette and watches as Dahmer chases another squirrel. “Kick it!” she hollers at Dahmer, who ditches the squirrel to rest by her side.

Photographer's Statement

Sara Ho

My photo aims to address stigma by not showing any type of stigma at all. I didn’t want to create a photo of Kristin that showed her taking pills or anything of that nature because I felt that there was more to Kristin than just being a young woman with HIV. When my partners and I met Kristen, she told us about her experiences with alcohol and drug use, and that she had been homeless since she was thirteen. There was so much more to her life story than just “getting HIV” and living with the after effects of it.

I made the decision not to display obvious HIV/AIDS messages because I felt that the concept was overdone. There’s always a photo of a young child who has HIV because it was transmitted through breast milk, or a homosexual couple shown supporting one another through this difficult time. But in these presentations, there’s no middle ground. There are many people with HIV/AIDS who don’t fit either of these categories.

I chose this photo of Kristin because to me, she is much stronger than she first appears. Her appearance alone leads to another type of stereotype, but it’s her personality that sets her apart from others. She makes an impact wherever she goes, not because of the fact that she’s living with HIV, but because she’s got a type of wisdom that exceeds her years.

When talking with Kristin, I realized that she’s been through it all – she’s been homeless, she’s experienced drug and alcohol abuse, yet she still has an amazingly positive outlook on life. It’s funny, too, because I’ve never tried anything like that and I first believed that we would have nothing to discuss simply because of the fact that we were so different. It was a truly eye-opening experience to me when I discovered that we had so much to say to each other, not because of what made us different, but because we shared human-to-human experiences. And now, I think that’s what this is about – human to human experience, not stigma.

Photographer’s Statement

Samira Almendras 

As I walked into the Food Basket grocery center, Kristin's presence was a hard one to miss.

Her shock of bright blue hair, multiple piercings, and the service dog tagging along immediately distinguished her from the other more reserved faces in the crowd. It was easy to see how others could be quick to judge her based on her appearance.

As a smoker with multiple piercings and past experimentation with unconventional hairstyles, I know all too well how it feels to be seen as an abnormality. For Kristin, the added stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS probably doesn't soften that initial judgment.

When I found out that my group had been assigned to Kristin, I was excited to finally hear her story. When we sat down for our first talk, she wasn't hesitant to share it.

"I was in love," she said, when she described how she contracted HIV. This was probably the most memorable thing she said. It was an honest admission, not an excuse, yet I could see how others might take it to be the latter. When I think about how the world believes HIV/AIDS is contracted, I think drugs or sex. Dirty needles and promiscuity. We rarely get to go deeper into people’s stories.

Instead, we group them into these generalized categories. For Kristin and others like her, the real stories become lost. Going into the second meeting, I wanted to be able to hear her story. Not the one about AIDS or drugs or whatever else, but just whatever story she wanted to tell. My two partners and I sat with Kristin as her dog, Dahmer, played in the grass. We just got to know each other and shared whatever was on our minds. This was the Kristin I wanted to portray, the laid-back chick that swung on tire swings and goofed around with her dog. I wanted to show her as the person that she is, and not as the person others thought she was.

Photographer's Statement

Peter Killory

I grew up on Capitol Hill, a neighborhood of Seattle that is home to the city’s gay and counterculture communities. While walking within a mile of my house, I was just as likely to come across a gay couple holding hands as a straight couple.

As a result, even though nobody in my immediate family had HIV or AIDS, I was very aware of its toll on the gay community. When I met Kristin, she instantly reminded me of home.

Kristin stands out from most people. Her grungy look is accented by bright blue hair and tattoos, quite literally showcasing her body as a piece of art. A stranger would probably glance at her and then form some sort of judgment on the spot, especially with the knowledge that she was living with HIV.

The purpose of my photo is to eliminate that stigma and portray Kristin in a different light. While her past is bumpy after years of alcoholism and drug addiction, Kristin has begun a new chapter in her life. She lives in San Jose with her best friend and dog, Dahmer, and has been sober for more than a year. I decided to take a cheerful, positive image because that’s the kind of life Kristin lives now.

Stereotypes and misconceptions are frustrating and offensive, difficulties that Kristin has to deal with on a regular basis. While our society is becoming increasingly accepting each year, there is still a strong stigma against those who seem alien.

HIV is life-changing, yet it’s not obvious based solely on physical appearance.

My photo shows Kristin and Dahmer together happily hanging out in a park, something they do every day. There is no justification to think any less of an individual because they have HIV or AIDS, and that’s what my photo says.