Giard Collection featured in Arts and Science News: ‘We were here; we exist. This is how we were.’ Robert Giard’s portraits of LGBTQ2S+ authors and writers
In 1985, after seeing a performance of The Normal Heart — a play by Larry Kramer set during the emergence of the HIV/AIDS crisis — the photographer Robert Giard (1939-2002) began a series of portraits of gay and lesbian authors and writers.
“Living close to New York City, we felt the impact of AIDS early and hard,” says Jonathan Silin. Giard’s life partner, Silin is a writer, educational consultant and a fellow at the Faculty of Arts & Science’s Mark S. Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies.
“Our friends, former partners, an entire generation of gay people was fast disappearing,” says Silin. “I became an AIDS advocate and educator. Bob took up his camera.