REPRESENTING BLACK LIVES IN THE LGBTQ COMMUNITY
Zanele Muholi is one of the most influential photographers/ artists today, exploring topics such as racism, labour, Eurocentrism and sexual politics, as well as showcasing South Africa’s black lesbian, gay, trans, queer and intersex communities. Muholi is a South Africa queer, non-binary visual activist (who uses the pronouns they/them/their) documenting various peoples lives in townships in South Africa. Their work is often bold and confrontational, addressing issues in racism and politics that come with race.
They focus on an ongoing project called “faces and phases” which depicts black lesbian and transgender people in response to the continuing discrimination and violence the LGBTI community faces. “Muholi’s self-proclaimed mission is ‘to re-write a black queer and trans visual history of South Africa for the world to know of our resistance and existence at the height of hate crimes in SA and beyond.'” –
https://www.yanceyrichardson.com/artists/zanele-muholi?view=slider#8
In another series, Somnyama Ngonyama (Hail the Dark Lioness) Muholi points the camera at themselves to be the model and the photographer, to experiment with characters and looks. They exaggerate skin tones to be darker through editing which increases the depth and contrast of the photograph its self, so they can take back their blackness, and offset the culturally dominant images of black women in modern day media.
- Zabo I, Kyoto, Japan, 2017. From the series Somnyama Ngonyama
MaID X, Durban, 2016
CRITICAL/ CONTEXTUAL
VISUAL
TECHNICAL