In November 1990
LIFE magazine published a photograph of a young man named David Kirby — his body wasted by AIDS, his gaze locked on something beyond this world — surrounded by anguished family members as he took his last breaths. The haunting image of Kirby on his death bed, taken by a journalism student named Therese Frare, quickly became the one photograph most powerfully identified with the HIV/AIDS epidemic that, by then, had seen millions of people infected (many of them unknowingly) around the globe.
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| David Kirby on his deathbed, Ohio, 1990. |
It was 1990. The AIDS epidemic had already wreaked havoc on millions of people’s lives across the world, ravaging families and communities. Lack of public education contributed to wide-spread hysteria about the disease. Those living with HIV/AIDS suffered violent discrimination and isolation.
The Witness
Therese Frare, a young photojournalist student, started graduate school at Ohio University that year. A gay rights activist, Therese wanted to cover AIDS for her school project, but she had difficulty finding a community of people living with the disease willing to be photographed. She began volunteering at the Pater Noster House, an AIDS hospice in Columbus and befriended Peta, a half Native American, HIV positive caregiver and client who “rode the line between genders.” Peta cared for David Kirby, a gay activist from a small Ohio town who had been estranged from his family since revealing his sexuality.
“I started grad school at Ohio University in Athens in January 1990,” Frare told
LIFE. “Right away, I began volunteering at the Pater Noster House, an AIDS hospice in Columbus. In March I started taking photos there and got to know the staff — and one volunteer, in particular, named Peta — who were caring for David and the other patients.”
Therese asked David if he minded having his photo taken. He said no—as long as there was no personal profit made from his image—because he knew the power of visuals in changing people’s perceptions.
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| In another of Therese Frare's photos taken in the final moments of David Kirby's life, his caregiver and friend, Peta; David's father; and David's sister, Susan, say goodbye. |
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| Bill Kirby tries to comfort his dying son, David, 1990. |
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| A nurse at Pater Noster House in Ohio holds David Kirby's hands not long before he died, spring 1990. |
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| David Kirby, Ohio, 1990. |
David called his parents to tell them he was dying, and they had welcomed him back into the family. His parents recall being hurt by the way the health staff from the small country hospital near their home treated David—wearing gloves and gowns around him. The woman who handed out menus to patients refused to let David hold one; she would read the meal options to him from the doorway. But at Pater Noster House, David had Peta, who spoke with him, held him and relieved his pain and loneliness through simple, compassionate human contact.
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| David Kirby's mother, Kay, holds a photograph of her son -- taken by Ohio photographer Art Smith -- before AIDS took its toll. |
On the day that David died, in April 1990 at the age of 32, Therese was visiting Peta. Peta went into David’s room to say goodbye and Therese stayed outside, trying to keep out of the way. But then David’s mother came out and asked Therese to take photos of David’s loved ones saying their final goodbyes to give them something to remember him by. Therese went into the room and stood quietly, barely perceptible, in the corner—a stranger documenting an intensely private moment. “Something truly incredible” unfolded before her eyes. David, decimated and emaciated, took his last breath and whispered “I’m ready,” slipping away with the presence of his loved ones.
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| Peta, a volunteer at Pater Noster House in Ohio, cares for a dying David Kirby, 1990. |
