These are the words of Mary Fisher, AIDS activist, mother, artist and
photographer, former advance woman for President Gerald Ford, former wife who,
in a loving marriage, contracted the virus that causes AIDS.
To make visible this "invisible army of compassion," Mary Fisher set out to
photograph caregivers of people - children, women, men - with HIV and AIDS. She
traveled from Connor's Nursery in West Palm Beach, Florida to an unnamed nursery
at the women's prison on Riker's Island; from and AIDS clinic in Birmingham,
Alabama to Rosie's Place, a home for Boston women in need. To get their stories
in photographs, Fisher had to move in close: into the subdued hospital rooms of
the very sick, into the laughter of friends, both healthy and infected, who
worked together in food banks preparing meals for house bound patients with
AIDS.
Moving in close was often difficult: "My cameras made me feel as if I were
and intruder..." Determined, Fisher went on the road for four years to
photograph and write the story behind the courage, dedication, devotion, and
love of caregivers, the angels in our midst.
Mary Fisher's life as an AIDS activist became more prominent with her
heart-stopping speech at the 1992 Republican National Convention that hushed
thousands of people in the hall and millions of others around the globe. That
speech was published in
Sleep With The Angels. She has since published another volume
of speeches, I'll
Not Go Quietly, and her memoirs, My Name Is Mary.
Her art has been exhibited across the county in galleries and shows and is on
display at her studio in Nyak, New York. She lives near New York City with her
two sons.
