Access to Life

 For the past 25 years, the AIDS pandemic has inflicted excruciating pain upon humanity, having ravaged the lives of millions of people around the world. Over the past few years, however, a quiet global revolution has enabled millions infected by HIV to live healthy lives through the free antiretroviral treatment program initiated by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. In Access to Life, eight of the world's leading photojournalists, all members of Magnum Photos, follow 30 individuals in nine countries before, and four months after, they began the antiretroviral treatment, documenting the transformative effect on their bodies, their lives, and the lives of their families. Here are the faces, voices, and stories representing millions of people who would otherwise be dead if not for access to free life-saving drugs. But there are also the stories of those individuals for whom treatment came too late-showing how the fight to bring access to AIDS treatment is still a difficult one.

Author Biography: Magnum Photos, the world's most prestigious photographic agency, was formed in 1947 by four photographers: Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, George Rodger and David 'Chim' Seymour. Their members are renowned for their intelligence in combining both reporter and artist in the photographer's role - attributes that have defined Magnum for over 60 years, and continue to do so.