The Bonham Project

Jon O'Neal

born 1957

The Bonham Project, 1987

Where object was made: United States

Material/technique: gelatin silver print; cardboard

Dimensions:
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 381 x 229 mm
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 15 x 9 1/2 in
Mat Dimensions (Height x Width): 20 x 16 in

Credit line: Gift of the artist

Accession number: 1993.0302

Not on display

Add to portfolio

If you wish to reproduce this image, please submit an image request

Images

Label texts

Healing, Knowing, Seeing the Body

As a physician and photographer, Dr. Jon O’Neal was tasked with studying the bodies of HIV-positive individuals as part of one of the U.S. military’s first systematic studies of AIDS. O’Neal became fascinated with understanding how a supposedly ill body—one infected with HIV—could show no obvious external signs of disease. His photographs were taken in a makeshift studio set up in The Bonham Exchange, a nightclub in 1980s San Antonio, Texas. O’Neal’s anonymized, disembodied images encourage us to consider how seeing bodies can at once feel intimate—even voyeuristic—and impersonal.

Healing, Knowing, Seeing the Body