Diary of David Tosh

David Tosh died in 1990 from an AIDS-related illness

Telling My Story

David Tosh was a handsome young man who died from an AIDS-related illness in May 1990, aged thirty.

In October 1990, John Jenner’s photographs of David Tosh were given widespread exposure when they were published in the Sydney Morning Herald ‘Good Weekend’ magazine. His portraits of his friend declining in health from 1986 to death four years later became a watershed in public acceptance of the disease. The photographs personalised the AIDS crisis during a time of often bitter antipathy towards its victims.

As John Jenner put it, ‘I wanted to use David’s story as a tribute to those people with AIDS who remain faceless—who end up just as a small obituary in the local newspaper … Perhaps David’s story might reduce some of the stigma.’
Display item Diary of David Tosh

 

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