After Jimmy DeSana was diagnosed with AIDS in 1985, his
provocative, intense, and sometimes playful photographs took a marked turn
toward abstraction as he began to work in a violent frenzy. For many at the
time—DeSana included—an AIDS diagnosis was a death sentence, in part due to the
American government’s inaction and indifference toward the crisis in its early
years. To create Parka, DeSana first photographed the figure (perhaps the
artist himself) using black-and-white film. He then sandwiched the
black-and-white negative with a color filter and printed it directly onto color
photographic paper, creating this arresting negative image set against lurid,
dramatic color.