Photograph by Therese Frare entitled 'Final Moment'. USA, 1990.

Photograph depicting David Kirby, a gay activist from Ohio, in an AIDS hospice in Columbus called Pater Noster House, surrounded by his family on the day of his death.

This photograph of David Kirby and family was first published in LIFE magazine in November 1990, later winning a World Press Photo award. It has been estimated that as many as one billion people have seen the image as it was one of the most reproduced images of the AIDS pandemic.
Frare was a volunteer at the hospice where the image was taken. She recounted in LIFE magazine “I asked David if he minded me taking pictures, and he said, ‘That’s fine, as long as it’s not for personal profit.’ To this day I don’t take any money for the picture. But David was an activist, and he wanted to get the word out there about how devastating AIDS was to families and communities. Honestly, I think he was a lot more in tune with how important these photos might become".

Controversially it was reproduced by Benetton for an advertising campaign in 1992 to widespread condemnation. However, David Kirby's mother later said “We never had any reservations about allowing Benetton to use Therese’s photograph in that ad. What I objected to was everybody who put their two cents in about how outrageous they thought it was, when nobody knew anything about us, or about David. My son more or less starved to death at the end... We just felt it was time that people saw the truth about AIDS, and if Benetton could help in that effort, fine. That ad was the last chance for people to see David a marker, to show that he was once here, among us.”

E.924-1996