This summer marks 33 years since the death of IU alumnus Tom Fox, who’s battle with AIDS in the late 1980s was documented through a series of photographs.
An exhibition of 60 striking photographs documenting Fox facing his illness and death are on display in Maxwell Hall. The exhibit, "Wild Horse Running: The Courageous Journey of Tom Fox," is presented by IU's Kinsey Institute in conjunction with the IU Cook Center for Public Arts and Humanities.
“Even though [the images are] about disease and death, [they] are really very positive,” said Professor Emeritus and lead curator of the exhibit Claude Cookman. “They tell the story of a young man who was trying to live his life in adverse circumstances. And so, I think they are just a wonderful example of the human condition.”
Fox invited photojournalist Michael Schwarz and medical reporter Steve Sternberg of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution into the final months of his life. Fox wanted to educate people on the AIDS epidemic at a time when the disease was extremely stigmatized.
In one iconic image from the early days of the AIDS epidemic, Fox is seen laying on his death bed, surrounded by his grief-stricken family. Sternberg’s 16-page story, titled "When AIDS Comes Home," accompanied by Schwarz’s photographs, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. The story was published in the Journal-Constitution in August of 1989.
“It really goes beyond a specific disease and talks about the human spirit,” said retired IU designer and one of the curators of the exhibit Dennis Hill. “I think that people will look at the photographs and recognize hopefully something about themselves and about people they know.”
Fox’s late parents, Robert and Doris, donated more than 230 prints of Schwarz’s photographs and other memorabilia to the Kinsey Institute in 2019, which set the exhibition in motion.
The exhibit, which is free to the public, runs through September 23, when there will be a closing ceremony for the exhibit.
