Torben Eskerod

Will to Live

This series of portraits Will to Live presents the visual side to an anthropological project about poor Brazilians with HIV/AIDS.

The project examines how Brazil, against all odds, became the first developing country to universalize access to life-saving AIDS therapies – a breakthrough made possible by an unexpected alliance of activists, government reformers, development agencies, and the pharmaceutical industry. Anthropologist João Biehl also tells why this policy, hailed as a model worldwide, has been so difficult to implement among poor Brazilians with HIV/AIDS, who are often stigmatized as noncompliant or untreatable, becoming invisible to the public. More broadly, Biehl examines the political economy of pharmaceuticals that lies behind large-scale treatment rollouts, revealing the possibilities and inequalities that come with a magic bullet approach to health care.

All pictures for the project and book were taken by Torben Eskerod.