Thomas McGovern

Thomas McGovern is a photographer, writer, and professor at California State University in San Bernardino. McGovern was an editorial photographer in New York and worked as the photo editor at The Village Voice until the mid-1990s. Bearing Witness (to AIDS) is a series of photographs as well as a publication depicting the AIDS crisis, which McGovern documented from 1987 to 1999. His works are powerful portraits and moving scenes from the time when AIDS and AIDS activism dominated cultural and political dialogue. He is the author of several other publications, including Amazing Grace: Worship at Two African American Evangelical Churches (2010) and HARD BOYS + BAD GIRLS (2010), about young people with mundane jobs who live out their fantasies through professional wrestling, were both published in 2010. From 2007 to 2013, McGovern collaborated with poet Juan Delgado on Vital Signs, a book about hand-painted signs and murals throughout Southern California.