ViiV Healthcare and Shutterstock Studios unite to tackle outdated perceptions of HIV with ‘HIV in View’ - a first-of-its-kind online HIV photography gallery

ViiV Healthcare and Shutterstock Studios today announced the launch of a new online photo gallery ‘HIV in View’, produced by Shutterstock in collaboration with ViiV Healthcare. The collection, curated with the support of people living with HIV, leverages Shutterstock’s global network of over one million creators to deliver a repository of high-resolution images depicting what it means to live with HIV today. Across four countries (the United Kingdom, Kenya, Uruguay, Portugal), people living with HIV stepped forward to be among the first photographed for this gallery, embarking on a shared ambition to help shift the world’s perception of HIV and move away from outdated stereotypes. From World AIDS Day 2020, the gallery will be free for all to access and use in projects, campaigns and communications* in the hope that it will increase awareness around HIV and break down barriers to stigma that still exist.

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Doreen Moracha, aged 28, from Nairobi, Kenya, one of the first people to be photographed for the gallery and HIV Advocate, said, “I am so proud to be one of the first people to be photographed for the ‘HIV in View’ gallery and to be part of a movement for change to represent real people living with HIV, their stories and experiences. Until the world sees HIV for what it really is, we are not going to make the progress we need to disrupt stereotypes of what it’s like to live with HIV. If my photographs can change just one person’s opinion of what it means to live with HIV today, I will know we are a step closer to reaching this goal.”

Today, living with HIV is a very different experience from just ten years ago. Advances in prevention, treatment and care mean that people living with HIV can live longer, healthier lives, with a person starting treatment at 20 years old now able to expect to see their 77^th birthday.¹ Despite these advances, people living with HIV face unique challenges that affect their quality of life every day. Stigma remains a stubbornly persistent threat to the health and well-being of many people living with HIV, and can often impact their ability to consistently access life-saving treatments and social support systems.² In the battle to challenge the negative assumptions about HIV, shining a light on the truth can be a potent strategy. Sharing the true picture and experiences of people living with HIV is key to undermining stigma.

Deborah Waterhouse, CEO, ViiV Healthcare, said, “At ViiV Healthcare, our mission is to leave no person living with HIV behind and reducing HIV-related stigma is key to achieving this. For too long, the public has been presented with outdated representations of what it is to live with HIV. Working with Shutterstock has underlined how a lack of widely accessible, present-day HIV imagery continues to hold us back. With the launch of the ‘HIV in View’ gallery, people across the world can now download authentic photography for free. As a company, we are making a pledge to use images of real people living with HIV across all our platforms, where applicable, moving forward and we encourage others to do the same. Living with HIV has changed, and we invite the world to help us show this.”

Michael Carfagnini, GM Global Shutterstock Studios, said, “ViiV Healthcare’s work in continuing to fight HIV-related stigma until people living with HIV are understood and accepted sparked a unique opportunity for Shutterstock to collaborate through powerful visuals. There is always a need for authentic and fresh imagery accurately depicting what it's like to live with HIV. At Shutterstock, we strive to empower the world’s storytellers through our content and services such as those offered through our new Studios division enabling brands and agencies to tell their unique stories. This presented an opportunity to prove the effectiveness and adaptability of our global network of contributors who would be tasked with safely depicting this crucial story, in a much more challenging time to do photography and videography with a pandemic limiting production around the world. This project and the various teams involved both at Shutterstock and ViiV Healthcare truly demonstrated the impact passion brings to creative projects, and we saw the same quality from our contributors and people living with HIV featured in the imagery.”

The ‘HIV in View’ gallery is produced by Shutterstock and created in collaboration with ViiV Healthcare. All images can be downloaded royalty free here: https://www.shutterstock.com/explore/viiv-collaboration.

Notes to editor

*The HIV in View collection will be offered for free under Shutterstock’s standard license to use in projects, campaigns and communications. Users who require the enhanced license will be charged the higher license fee, of which 100% of the proceeds will be donated to (RED), a non-profit organisation helping fund the fight to end AIDS, at the discretion of Shutterstock. For additional information on the license comparison, visit: https://www.shutterstock.com/license-comparison.

About Shutterstock, Inc.

Shutterstock, Inc. (NYSE: SSTK), directly and through its group subsidiaries, is a leading global provider of high-quality licensed photographs, vectors, illustrations, videos and music to businesses, marketing agencies and media organizations around the world. Working with its growing community of over 1 million contributors, Shutterstock adds hundreds of thousands of images each week, and currently has more than 350 million images and more than 20 million video clips available.

Headquartered in New York City, Shutterstock has offices around the world and customers in more than 150 countries. The company’s brands also include Bigstock, a value-oriented stock media offering; Shutterstock Custom, a custom content creation platform; Offset, a high-end image collection; PremiumBeat, a curated royalty-free music library; and Shutterstock Editorial, a premier source of editorial images and videos for the world's media.

For more information, please visit www.shutterstock.com and follow Shutterstock on Twitter and on Facebook.

About ViiV Healthcare

ViiV Healthcare is a global specialist HIV company established in November 2009 by GlaxoSmithKline (LSE: GSK) and Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) dedicated to delivering advances in treatment and care for people living with HIV and for people who are at risk of becoming infected with HIV. Shionogi joined in October 2012. The company’s aims are to take a deeper and broader interest in HIV/AIDS than any company has done before and take a new approach to deliver effective and innovative medicines for HIV treatment and prevention, as well as support communities affected by HIV.

For more information on the company, its management, portfolio, pipeline, and commitment, please visit www.viivhealthcare.com.

About GSK

GSK is a science-led global healthcare company with a special purpose: to help people do more, feel better, live longer. For further information please visit www.gsk.com/about-us.

Cautionary statement regarding forward-looking statements

GSK cautions investors that any forward-looking statements or projections made by GSK, including those made in this announcement, are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. Such factors include, but are not limited to, those described under Item 3.D "Risk Factors" in the company's Annual Report on Form 20-F for 2019 and as set out in GSK’s “Principal risks and uncertainties” section of the Q3 Results and any impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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1. May et al. Impact on life expectancy of HIV-1 positive individuals of CD4+ cell count and viral load response to antiretroviral therapy. Available at: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24556869/ Last accessed: December 2020.

2. Avert. HIV stigma and discrimination. Available at: https://www.avert.org/professionals/hiv-social-issues/stigma-discrimination Last accessed: December 2020.

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Contact information

Shutterstock media enquiries – corporate or people living with HIV interviews:
Lara Baez, Communications Associate
press@shutterstock.com

ViiV Healthcare media enquiries – corporate only interviews:

Kate Senter, Global Corporate and Internal Communications Director
kate.x.senter@viivhealthcare.com

Daria Sadchikova, Communications and Government Affairs Associate
daria.x.sadchikova@viivhealthcare.com

GSK media enquiries – corporate only interviews:
Simon Steel (London) - +44 (0) 20 8047 5502
Tim Foley (London) - +44 (0) 20 8047 5502
Kristen Neese (Philadelphia) - +1 804 217 8147
Kathleen Quinn (Washington DC) - +1 202 603 5003