Focus on AIDS 13

In 1987, I lost a very close friend and mentor to AIDS. Wanting to do something to memorialize him, two of my friends and I started Focus On AIDS (FOA), a photography auction/benefit. We called upon photographers and a few galleries to donate images to be auctioned and gave all the money raised ($50,000) to an AIDS charity. It was a time when no one was doing anything about the disease or using photography as a collectible art form. - Susan Barez

Since 1987, Focus on AIDS have raised over $3 million, of which all net proceeds have been donated to leading HIV/AIDS initiatives around the globe such as Asha Kirana : Center for AIDS Care & Research in India, Arnold’s House : A Safe House for Orphans of AIDS in Tanzania and Keep a Child Alive

Past contributing artists include: Herb Ritts, Greg Gorman, Annie Leibowitz, Richard Avedon, Bruce Davidson, Horace Bristol, David Bailey, Bruce Weber, and William Claxton. This year some of the photographers contributing their works are Alec Soth, Douglas Kirkland, Elliot Erwitt, Herman Leonard, Mary Ellen Mark among others. Check out the list here .

This Sunday is FOA 13 over at Bergamot Station from noon to 5 pm with a preview show on Friday April 30th running concurrently as MOPLA's Closing Night celebration from 7-10 pm. So if you're curious to check out what photographers have submitted for the auction, head over to the MOPLA party Friday night.



There's was a preview of some of the images up for auction just last week at Fresh Fair. Out of the ones I saw, this one is my favorite - Melvin Sokolsky.