the last wordMichéle Martinoli is a lesbian photographer best known for her erotic images of the male body featured in countless art books including The Male Nude Now, Exposed, Dreamboys and Homme. Her latest project, however, is a series of portraits of hep-C positive people for the Department of Health’s new hepatitis C Awareness campaign
You’re best known for taking smutty pictures, how did you become
involved in the ‘Let’s Face It’ campaign?
(Laughs) They’re not smutty - they’re arty. I was at University
doing a BA in 2003 when I was diagnosed with hep C and I had a project to
do at the same time I started treatment. I thought, if I’m immersed
in this treatment I might as well do the project on hep C. So I tried to find
people who were infected and willing to come out into the open to try and
break the taboo surrounding the illness.
I think it’s necessary that people get to know about it. There’s
always a taboo where there’s ignorance - it’s the same as with
HIV. As soon as people have information and know how to be careful, they are
no longer scared.
How dangerous is hep C?
It’s a life-threatening disease. It’s a chronic inflammation of
the liver, but it progresses very slowly. I think I had it for 30 years, but
it was only the two years before diagnosis that I had any symptoms: in my
case kidney infections and intolerance to alcohol. But the most common symptoms
are fatigue and inflammation of the liver. Apparently I was close to having
cirrhosis of the liver when they found the disease - the scarring was that
severe. The next stage after cirrhosis is cancer of the liver, and if it progresses
further it’s curtains.
How do you think you caught it?
Well, I was no angel. I think I got it from injecting drugs in the seventies.
Then again, I was given blood products when I gave birth to my son so it could
have been from that. Blood products in the UK have only been screened for
the virus since 1981, so transfusion is one of the main ways of getting it.
Latest research seems to indicate that you might be able to get it just from
snorting drugs through rolled up bank notes. The virus is so tiny it only
take the tiniest speck of blood to transmit, and it’s thought that the
virus can survive for a long time outside the body, even in dried blood.
How did your partner react?
She was quite scared. She was a pedicurist by trade and had treated someone
who died from hep C, so she had been having check-ups. Now she’s thinking
of having further tests, but the problem with hep C is that the virus might
take a while to show up because it takes a long time to incubate.
How debilitating is treatment?
You only really realise what you’ve gone through once you’ve finished
treatment. You loose about 50 per cent of your energy. I could only walk about
50 metres without resting. I lost half my hair and my skin got very sensitive,
especially on my back. I had to cover myself with creams every day.
What’s your next major project?
It’s about the naked male in London, with the onset of the 21st century.
All the locations have a special significance for the models. The idea is
to put the male on a pedestal. As an old dyke I’m going to be slaughtered
by the feminists, but I think the naked male is still an object of derision
in many ways. So I really want to show that aesthetic beauty of the male is
on a par with female beauty. The images will form part of an exhibition with
48 other photographers at London’s Atlantis Galley in Brick Lane from
22 to 27 June. Incidentally, the gallery is the exact same location where
they filmed TV’s Hell’s Kitchen.
If people are reading this and are concerned, how can they find out
more about hep C?
Speak to the Hepatitis C Trust on 0870 200 1 200 or online at www.hepcuk.info
There’s also loads of information about hep C at www.ukcoalition.org/hepc and the NHS Let’s Face It campaign is at www.hepc.nhs.uk or the Hepatitis C information line 0800 451451.
• Let’s Face It will be touring major UK cities this month.
