A bright future
Fashion photographer Frank Herholdt visited Africa to capture the optimistic spirit of men and women involved in clinical trials of microbicides
Words and images Frank Herholdt
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in 2003 I was asked by Professor Jon Weber, head of the Microbicides Development
Programme (MDP) at London’s Imperial College, to highlight the positive
side of his microbicide project in Africa. Microbicides are gels that may
prevent transmission of HIV and other STIs when used before sex. They should
offer hope for people (especially women) who cannot, or do not, want to use
condoms.
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I agreed to take the pictures and left for South Africa in spring 2004. I
was nervous; I’d never worked as a
photojournalist before. First off, Soweto, Johannesburg. Everybody at the
clinic I visited was helpful and friendly, but they expected me to whip out
a 35mm camera, click and go. I wanted to treat the pictures just like a fashion
shoot and, much to the participants’ amusement and sometimes irritation,
I took hours rather than minutes to achieve each image. The girls I photographed
were excellent company and soon got into the spirit of it. Next stop Zambia,
to a clinic in the sugar plantation of Mazabuka. .jpg)
The participants were shyer
than in South Africa. The stay was punctuated with marvellous encounters,
ending in a garden party. We were entertained with songs and performances
about the people’s lives. In Uganda I had to coerce staff to give me
access to what I was interested in and not what they perceived to be interesting.
But, after sitting around for long hours under beautiful trees, I managed
to achieve some of my best pictures. It was a race against time as they were
needed for an important conference back in the UK.
In Masaka, Western Uganda,
we were
entertained by a dance troupe that used music and song to teach better sexual
health practices.
We then flew from Entebbe in a tiny plane that could barely contain our equipment
across Lake Victoria to Mwanza. It’s a crazy frontier town with mud-splattered
streets where I took some lovely pictures of a group of women, in town for
the day to attend a seminar at the clinic. .jpg)
The impression I got from all the
happy people I met on the trials was of optimism for the future.
Frank Herholdt was born in Cape Town and grew up in Johannesburg. He works
as a successful advertising and fashion photographer
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