Archive / Journal: 1985 - 1995/2001

During the 2020 Covid-19 lockdown, Vincent Cianni revisited over one hundred rolls of film from NYC Pride marches photographed between 1985 and 1995. For three months, he spent 6 to 8 hours a day, 5 to 6 days a week in the darkroom, editing and printing more than 140 photographs, many of which had never been printed before. The images documented Pride marches that took place during the height of another health crisis, the AIDS epidemic, the insidious and devastating disease that ravaged the LGBTQ+ community. The parallels between the two health crises became clear as news reports on the pandemic unfolded, revealing the same failures of government repeating themselves yet again. The marches also affirmed that healthcare, including treatment for people with HIV/AIDS, is a right. They demanded an end to the stigma and criminalization of HIV, as well as a more effective response from medical and government agencies and officials who fail to provide funding for research on medical treatment or offer legal, housing, and medical services to people with limited access. This demonstration of solidarity strengthened the sense of community and helped protect the rights earned from the Stonewall Rebellion in 1969 and the first NYC Pride March, also known as the Christopher Street Liberation Day March, which took place on June 28, 1970, one year after the Stonewall Rebellion.

Archive/Journal: 1985-1995/2001 is a two-volume title in a slipcase bringing together two related bodies of work: Volume 1, Archive 1985-1995, reproduces approximately 80 black-and-white photographs made of the NYC Pride marches during the height of the AIDS epidemic from 1985 to 1995. The photographs are accompanied by timelines, ephemera, newspaper articles, etc., and essays by Miss Rosen and Theodore Zinn, to expand the political, social, and historical understanding of the culture, activism, and milieu of the LGBTQ+ community. Volume 2: Journal: 1985-2001 focuses on personal narratives culled from Cianni's journals, and visual stories of lovers and friends who were living with or who died from AIDS, reflecting on his journey with HIV and his experience with activism surrounding HIV/AIDS from the same period as the Pride photographs.