Solomon states the goal of this project as follows: "to reveal a special character, a relationship, an environment, aspects of the human struggle to survive." At a time when the view of AIDS was monolithic (that of a solitary white male wasting away in a clinical setting), Solomon attempted to depict the individuality as well as the normalcy, the suffering as well as the strength of people living with rather than dying from AIDS.

Her technique to communicate both the integrity and veracity of her sitters was to invite them to choose the setting and to place themselves within it. The result is a variety of dramatic portraits whose subjects gaze sometimes defiantly, sometimes poignantly, but always directly at the viewer. This directness not only challenges our stereotypical representations of "AIDS victims" and "members of risk groups" but also reveals our shameful tendency to talk about, rather than to, persons who are ill or dying.

Solomon has come under criticism for exploiting people with AIDS and merely continuing the solipsism that art photography encourages--namely, that these photographs foreground the sensibility of the artist rather than the reality of her subjects’ lives. Nevertheless, Solomon makes a genuine effort to collapse the boundaries between subject and object, innocent and guilty, healthy and sick, them and us.