Contents
Zanele Muholi
Creating a visual record of Black queer lives in South Africa.
Faces and Phases · Somnyama Ngonyama
- Born
- 19 July 1972
- Birthplace
- Durban, South Africa
More people
Zanele Muholi
Zanele Muholi is a South African photographer and visual activist. Their portraits and self-portraits challenge exclusion while documenting the individuality of people often absent from public archives.
Early life
Umlazi upbringing
Grew up in Durban’s Umlazi township in an extended family.
Photography education
Trained at Johannesburg’s Market Photo Workshop and later studied documentary media in Toronto.
Career
- 2003–2004
Early exhibitions
Completed photography training and held a first solo exhibition in Johannesburg.
- 2000s–2010s
Building an archive
Developed long-running portrait projects with Black LGBT participants.
- 2020s
International retrospectives
Major museum exhibitions brought the work to wider audiences.
Selected work
Faces and Phases
An ongoing portrait series documenting Black lesbian and transgender lives.
Somnyama Ngonyama
Used staged self-portraits to examine race, representation and labour.
Tate survey
A major London exhibition brought together decades of visual activism.
Beyond work
Collaborative practice
Calls photographed people participants and involves them in how they are represented.
Gender identity
Is non-binary and uses they/them pronouns.
Sources & photo credit
Life, career and references ↗Institutional source ↗Photo: International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival «Side by Side». CC BY-SA 3.0 · Original image. Cropped and displayed in monochrome.
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