Memento Mori: An AIDS Elegy is slideshow version of photographer Michael Minichiello’s book, itself a response to the devastation of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s and 90s. With the death of so many friends, he set out on a personal journey that would take him to cemeteries from Prague to Scotland, Ireland to Budapest, Venice to Nova Scotia, New York to Paris, where ubiquitous islands of quietude unmask a universal human heart. Here in these gardens of stone, he was immersed in humanity’s most poignant response to agony and serenity, piercing questioning and the most solemn resignation to fate.
As edited by William Repicci, the arc of Mr. Minichiello’s ten-year endeavor is revealed in the evolving nature of the photographer’s viewpoint over time. Early photos of angst-ridden statuary and tumbled headstones give way to bucolic cemetery landscapes, just as loss is tempered by the greater urgency of giving testimony that this loss has not been in vain. (Slide presentation accompanied by quotes from the stage drama “Angels in America” by Tony Kushner, and music by Moby. There is also an extended version that pairs period quotes from dramatic literature with each photograph.)
Sponsored by: Pasos: The Museum and Center for Peacebuilding