Invisible Lives

With the exception of Africa, the highest percentage of HIV infections are found in high-risk groups such as drugs users, prostitutes, the transgender community, gay men, street children or prisoners. They encounter more stigmatisation and discrimination than other groups, which makes it harder for aid to reach them. Writer Colet van der Ven and photographer Adriaan Backer travelled around the world to give these people a voice: women in patriarchal Tadzhikistan, victims of political violence in Kenya, black homosexuals in the deeply religious southern states of America, transgenders in India, (ex-)prisoners in South Africa and drug users in Myanmar. They also interviewed a representative of the first generation of AIDS patients in the Netherlands and a female refugee in the Ukraine.