Swire brings to the block the latest in HIV-testing technology: a finger-prick test called OraQuick that delivers on-the-spot results in 20 minutes with 99.6 percent accuracy. "I make up fliers and posters that I cover the whole building with," he says.

The building might be the Bourbon Pub Parade, the Good Friends Bar or Cafe Lafitte in Exile, where Tennessee Williams used to drink. Some of the bar managers even allow him a promo speech, something like "'Hey, we're upstairs doing the HIV rapid testing. Know your results in 20 to 25 minutes.' And they'll come up and get tested," Swire says. And sometimes "they're lined up before we get there, knowing what's going on that day."

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He pauses before an image, pointing out a cut that scores a women's eyelid like an engraving. In another, bumps rise like a ridge from a man's forehead. Kessler zooms in on a woman's back, focusing on a red patch surrounded by black and blue. "You can see the outline of the object used -- a stick," he says. "You'll never see anything like that on a Polaroid."

At the 112th Precinct in northern Queens, Officer Linda Rivera holds up a 1.2 megapixel Kodak DC-120 with zoom and built-in viewer. "I was a little nervous when I heard the word 'digital camera,'" she says. "But it's so basic. A victim comes in. We photograph her here or at the hospital. You press two buttons. You see the photo instantly." Before the coming of digital, "we got a lot of dark photos. We'd run out of film. It could be spoiled, discolored." Close-ups, critical for depicting wounds, required cumbersome attachments, some of which had to be fastened to the victim. "This is quicker and less invasive."

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