Billy Howard's Epitaphs for the Living

At the time, there was no effective treatment for the disease—people diagnosed with it faced the potential of an agonizing death, as well as stigmatization, discrimination, and isolation because of fears and misunderstandings of the disease.

Once Howard printed the portraits, he asked the individuals to write on them a message about living—and dying—from HIV/AIDS. Together, Howard's portraits and the subjects' honest words gave distinct faces and voices to the harrowing statistics of the pandemic.