Tim Gruber and Jenn Ackerman use both photography and video to tell stories for editorial and commercial clients. 
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In 1981, the CDC announced a rare form of pneumonia that was quickly taking lives. Since, the HIV/AIDS epidemic has claimed the lives of more than 30 million people.
The epidemic in America has shifted from one of a death sentence to what many have considered a manageable chronic disease in America. While coverage of the global epidemic has increased, there has been a decrease in domestic coverage.
Over the past decade, HIV and AIDS have become a forgotten disease in this country. There has always been a disproportionate coverage of the population affected by HIV in America, leading to a constant battle to ward off stereotypes.
I hope to document the changing face of HIV in America by showing faces of those infected we rarely see in the media — those living in rural America. Most of the coverage of HIV in America is placed in urban setting but there is a whole population of people living with HIV and AIDS in rural parts of this country that remain in the dark.
HIV/AIDS is still considered very much an urban disease, so those who live with HIV in a rural community live differently than those in big cities. The hardships of living with HIV and AIDS in a rural community differs from that of someone living in a city.
Research shows that there are increasing numbers of people living with HIV and AIDS in rural America (Gardner et al., 1989; Lam & Lui, 1994). From the research I have done on HIV in this area, people living with HIV/AIDS fit into two groups. They either have been born, grown up and remained living in rural areas for the majority of their lives, or they have emigrated to the big cities in order to escape small towns, but following their diagnosis of HIV, return home to live in a familiar community and be with friends and family.
I hope that my project will show that the disease affects more than the physical body. I plan to explore their relationships and the social and psychological aspects of their lives impacted by HIV. I plan to photograph at least five people in this area, addressing some of the main issues of people living with HIV in rural areas. The issues that I hope to address are the stigmas and prejudice associated with the disease, the lack of social support for persons with HIV in rural areas and the increased demands on rural health care facilities.