—This is a guest post by Adam M. Silvia, a curator in the Prints and Photographs Division.
As a photojournalist, Taro Yamasaki photographed at-risk children in the United States and around the world — Nicaragua, Bosnia, Rwanda, the Middle East.
The Prints and Photographs Division recently acquired three collections that document such work by the Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer: “Children in Peril,” “Escaping Human Trafficking” and “Ryan White and the Battle Against AIDS” — the last a chronicle of the American teenager who became an international symbol of the fight against the disease.
People magazine had hired Yamasaki and reporter Bill Shaw to contribute to a special feature on living with AIDS, along with other teams in major cities across the U.S. The pair arrived at White’s home in Cicero, Indiana, in summer 1987 to begin work.
“I hadn’t met or photographed anyone with AIDS, though I was reading everything I could find about it,” Yamasaki recalled in an interview with the Library’s Picture This blog about his influential photographs of White.
White, then 15 years old, was born with hemophilia and contracted AIDS from a tainted blood transfusion. The local school refused to readmit White to classes after other parents objected, incorrectly believing the disease might spread to other students.
Yamasaki describes meeting White for the first time, photographing his struggle and witnessing his miraculous transformation into an ambassador of sorts, inspiring empathy for the victims of AIDS. Upon hearing his story, pop superstar (and future Gershwin Prize winner) Elton John befriended White and his family. White died in 1990, at age 18. Just after he passed, family and friends gathered in a circle for prayer.
“They held hands, and (White’s mother) Jeanne said, ‘You can photograph this or you can join the circle, Taro,’” Yamasaki said. “I put my camera down and joined the circle, knowing full well that my editors would have wanted that picture.”
At the funeral, Yamasaki took one of his greatest photographs, capturing the power of White’s story. With permission, Yamasaki hid behind the piano as John performed “Skyline Pigeon.”
“In the middle of the song, I stood up,” he remembered, “hoping my hands weren’t shaking too much to get a sharp picture.” It was the perfect photograph.
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Comments (3)
Love this. Thank you for publishing history about HIV and AIDS/Queer history.
This was a nice surprise in my emails this morning (2025.03.17). I met Ryan White, his family, and their celebrity friend who had helped set up a special day for them at Miami Seaquarium.
That was in the late 1980s. I picked them up at the hotel, was their guide during their time at the park, and then drove them back to their hotel afterward. They had experienced some kind of cruelty in their community not long before so it was an unexpected blessing to have been part of giving something fun and special to them (spending quality time with the dolphins at the Flipper Lagoon).
The Ryans were kind, respectful folks. Their young celebrity friend was high profile with a notable TV presence. That friend remains a personal (identity protected) hero because he/she did what they did solely out of genuine kindness and concern for others. That celebrity and the Seaquarium went out of their ways to guarantee there would be no exploitation of the Ryans’ outing by consciously not taking any pictures of such a memorable experience. I still think of them regularly and smile all these decades later. 🙂
Thank you for this story of a very courageous young man.