In 2001 David Swatling rediscovered a cassette tape made for him in 1989 by Dutch photographer Frits de Ridder. A bicycle journey to the country turns into an audio meditation on art, AIDS, activism, and most of all - friendship.

As producer of the RNW culture programme Mirror Images, I interviewed many artists whose work reflected AIDS issues. In 1989, a year after 1 December was designated World AIDS Day, I talked with Dutch photographer Frits de Ridder about his portraits of homeless men and women living with AIDS in New York City.

Art and AIDS

I met Frits four years earlier when he took publicity photos for a small English-speaking theatre company I was working with in Amsterdam. We quickly became good friends who shared a deep passion for art and a competitive streak on the pool table. In 1986 I was cast in the first play about AIDS to be staged in Amsterdam. Two years later Frits was diagnosed HIV positive himself.

As is often the case of two friends with strong personalities, we occasionally fell out and would not see each other for months at a time. But we continued to support each other’s work as I made a move from theatre to radio and Frits organised the AIDS-Related Art exhibition for the Amsterdam International AIDS Conference in 1992. His work for the exhibit reflected his concerns about the pandemic in Africa.

New Heroes

 "For seven years I wandered through this strange unknown land,
 I saw men of great beauty, the beauty of warriors of the old days.
 I saw their beauty praised for its nobleness, its fierceness.
 I saw great beauty crumble in its flesh.
 I saw fierceness corrupt into a shadow, deeper than the despair it concealed.
 I saw great beauties, warriors of the old days, weep.
 I saw the new heroes emerge."

For seven years Frits documented his battle with a series of self-portraits. In the summer of 1994 he opened the exhibition New Heroes – a series of striking portraits of men and women facing the camera, their eyes directly confronting the viewer. “Photography is seeing what’s around you,” he explained, “and I see most people taking a head-on approach.”

But I missed the exhibition. Absorbed with some problems of my own, I hadn’t seen Frits in six months – and a month later he was gone. It was devastating to hear from a mutual friend that Frits had expressed regret that he and I had drifted apart.

Found Sound

In May 2001, I attended an AIDS Memorial Service in Amsterdam and remembered a cassette tape Frits had made for my birthday years before. I found the tape and a month later it had became the basis for the feature Cycling with Frits. During the period I made the programme, I kept a journal that included some of my thoughts about the process. To read some excerpts, click here.

‘Cycling with Frits’ was produced and presented by David Swatling. It was originally broadcast in June 2001 as part of the series Aural Tapestry. In 2006 David collaborated with Mindy Ran on a five minute video version of the story.