FELIZ & JORGE

AA Bronson, Felix, 1994

National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa

I made this photograph of Felix a few hours after his death. He is arranged to receive visitors, and his favorite objects are gathered about him: his television remote control, his tape-recorder, and his cigarettes. Felix suffered from extreme wasting, and at the time of his death his eyes could not be closed: there was not enough flesh left on the bone.

Felix and Jorge and I lived and worked together from 1969 until 1994. This communal life ended when Jorge died of AIDS on February 3, 1994. Felix followed shortly after, on June 5, 1994.

AA Bronson, Jorge, 1994

Jorge was blind when I took these photos.
I had to act as his mirror in order that he could look 'normal'. "Should my eyes be like this?" he asked. "A little more open," I replied, "No, not quite that much."