In December of 1987 Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome was a mysterious fatal illness. It had only worsened in the six years since a UCLA epidemiologist reported the first AIDS cases. Activists called a meeting that December, warning that, aside from continued domestic slaughter due to official indifference, ultimately poor nations would be hit hardest. A storm drenched the city that night but did not prevent more than 400 people from attending. They agreed that a citizens army was needed to address the government’s failure. The Los Angeles chapter of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, ACT UP, was born.

ACT UP changed history, and photographer Chuck Stallard captured the LA chapter’s astonishing achievements. Stallard’s images show the drama, daring, and diversity that define ACT UP/LA. His artistic skills combined with a journalist’s dedication to always get the best possible shot. That personal focus could be reckless; he was arrested twice when he didn’t get out of the way of police fast enough. After vision and dedication, a third ingredient was trust: Stallard was an ACT UP member. He knew the activist whirlwind from the inside.

One veteran called the experience “a three-year adrenaline rush.” By the end of 1990, ACT UP had orchestrated more than 200 demonstrations; often producing as many as 20 actions in a single month. This demanded a consuming commitment. Each action required research, logistical planning, and funding. The urgency of those days is hard to conceive of now. Every gay person had helplessly watched friends die. President Ronald Reagan, the “Great Communicator,” refused to so much as say the word “AIDS.” Few treatments existed. Fear and ignorance were so rampant that some newly diagnosed people opted for suicide rather than face the world with that illness.

Stallard’s artistry may seem eclipsed by his subject, but it deserves appreciation. His photographs effortlessly, even symmetrically, frame unpredictable action: Protestors scream. Officers lunge. Activists huddle. The viewer witnesses tension, fury, defiance. Boys in skirts smile. A middle finger is flung as crowds of gay activists, Christian fundamentalists and law officers converge in a free-speech Armageddon. Stallard’s lens sometimes evokes the freaky cityscapes of Diane Arbus, sometimes the battlefield photography of Robert Capa. Stallard’s sensibility is his own, but he easily shares Capa’s credo: “If your pictures aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough.”

Stallard’s choice of black and white enhances his aesthetic vision of the architecture of activism. Buildings loom large in his work, but always as a backdrop for human action, small people in vast crowds which ultimately prevail. The street is another metaphor Stallard employs. Many of his images include a vast foreground of asphalt, a tough and flawed urban stage for the street theater played out at each ACT UP event. Protestors and police often form lines across a street. The activist chant, “Whose streets? Our Streets!” can’t be seen in the fixed air; nonetheless, it hangs there.

Chuck Stallard’s photographs also reflect a startling level of social concerns that have not changed in twenty years. The rough tactics of LAPD officers still make headlines. The stubborn resistance to complete AIDS education and funding by a president named George Bush costs lives today. The lack of accessible healthcare – for HIV disease as well as for all needs –remains a national emergency. ACT UP’s first demand in 1987 was for universal healthcare. The basics of the ACT UP movement were fundamental and generated enormous energy and progress. But look around. The issues of those days remain our issues today.

Stuart Timmons - June 2007

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