Vincent Cianni's Two-Volume Book Chronicles AIDS Crisis from Within

Photographer Vincent Cianni releases Archive/Journal: 1985-1995/2001, a two-volume book published by Daylight Books that compiles decades of his photographs and personal writings documenting the AIDS crisis from an insider's perspective. Volume 1, Archive, 1985-1995, captures public activism and queer joy in New York City, including Pride marches featuring figures like Marsha P Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, alongside collages preserving historic materials from Gran Fury and ACT UP. Volume 2, Journal: 1985-2001, presents intimate reflections on HIV, loss, and healing, drawn from Cianni's personal journals shared with his partner Scott, who died of AIDS. Cianni, a former professor at Parsons School of Design, revisited this archive during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The book begins in 1985, the year Rock Hudson's AIDS announcement made global headlines, and covers the era when same-sex activity was still illegal in over a dozen states and televangelist Jerry Falwell called AIDS divine judgment. Cianni, then 23, turned his camera into a personal diary as the line between artist and subject dissolved. The work documents love, loss, and survival, with 44 million dead from AIDS as of 2026, while today 40.9 million live with HIV and a cure is on the horizon.