Chicago Magazine Photographer: Positively Aware’s Aging With HIV covershoot at Town Hall Apartments

Chicago Magazine Photographer: My photoshoot for Positively Aware Magazine‘s aging with HIV issue has been published. A group of seniors met us on location at the Town Hall Apartments, one of the first LGBT-friendly senior living residences in the country. The facility is co-owned by Heartland Alliance and Center on Halsted. Heartland Alliance provides property management services; Center on Halsted offers programs and on-site case management for residents.

 

Chicago Magazine Photographer outdoor lifestyle portrait for a magazine cover Positivly Aware Aging With HIV A group of seniors met us on location at the Town Hall Apartments, one of the first LGBT-friendly senior living residences in the country. The facility is co-owned by Heartland Alliance and Center on Halsted. by Chicago Magazine Photographer John Gress

 

Chicago Magazine Photographer group photo on a piano A group of seniors pose at the Town Hall Apartments, one of the first LGBT-friendly senior living residences in the country. The facility is co-owned by Heartland Alliance and Center on Halsted. by Chicago Magazine Photographer John Gress

 

Chicago Magazine Photographer group photo A group of seniors met us on location at the Town Hall Apartments, one of the first LGBT-friendly senior living residences in the country. The facility is co-owned by Heartland Alliance and Center on Halsted. by Chicago Magazine Photographer John Gress

 

Chicago Magazine Photographer Behind the Scenes

I primarily used two Phototek softlighter II umbrellas, a Westcott 7′ white parabolic umbrella and a Profoto 5′ octabox when lighting the photos. ALl of the lights were Profoto D1 Air 500s.

About the issue

This special issue of Positively Aware looks at aging and HIV. Olivia Ford and Mark S. King served as guest editors, and put together a fantastic issue. David Alain Wohl looks at the connection between HIV and accelerated aging. Rae Lewis-Thornton offers facts and perspectives on menopause and HIV. Kenyon Farrow connects black gay activists from two generations. Kellee Terrell writes about how the medical community can help trans women living with HIV reach their golden years. David Durán discusses the decisions that need to be considered for when tomorrow comes

 

From the Guest Editors Olivia G. Ford and Mark S. King

Since the AIDS crisis began in the early 1980s, one group of people swept up
in the calamity has most captured our attention and deep empathy: those who were in their 20s during the dawn of the epidemic, whose lives were upended or cut short by the emerging plague.

Through the years, we have watched them face tragedy, minister to the sick and dying, organize a response, and eventually rebound with new medications. It has been a heartbreaking and captivating journey to witness.

As this group now enters middle age and comes under the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s “older adult” umbrella of 50 and older, the media has responded with a proliferation of stories on HIV and aging that typically focus on preparing to age—rather than on those who are already experiencing it.

As guest editors of this special issue of POSITIVELY AWARE, one of us is a survivor and chronicler of the “AIDS generation.” The other, as a queer black woman who came of age in the ’90s, approaches HIV from multiple intersecting communities. We have both spent most of our adult lives immersed in narratives of the epidemic—often working together, and always learning from one another.

Read more from Positively Aware Magazine

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