Zanele Muholi (they/them) is a visual activist born in 1972 in South Africa. Through their photographs, they tell the stories and experiences of the Black LGBTQIA+ community in South Africa. By visualizing communities that have been underrepresented or misrepresented, they seek to raise awareness about the injustices faced by these groups.

Through their photographs, they tell the stories and experiences of the Black LGBTQIA+ community in South Africa. By visualizing communities that have been underrepresented or misrepresented, they seek to raise awareness about the injustices faced by these groups.

This artist grew up during the apartheid regime, a time when injustices and discrimination based on gender and sexuality were at their peak. Although South Africa’s constitution was the first to prohibit discrimination on these grounds, such prejudice and hatred persist today. This is why Muholi creates these powerful photographs: to advocate for change while also celebrating love, joy, and resilience.

This is why Muholi creates these powerful photographs: to advocate for change while also celebrating love, joy, and resilience.

In their early photographs, Muholi depicts the people they photograph with dignity, compassion, and courage in the face of constant discrimination. These images capture the pain, love, and defiance within the Black LGBTQIA+ community in South Africa. Later, they created the ongoing series Faces and Phases, comprising over 600 photographs that celebrate, commemorate, and give visibility to the lives of Black lesbian, transgender, and gender non-conforming individuals. By sometimes photographing the same person over time, Muholi also portrays the passage of time, the changes in the lives of those depicted—their jobs, and so on—showing how life unfolds and impacts them.

In their early photographs, Muholi depicts the people they photograph with dignity, compassion, and courage in the face of constant discrimination. These images capture the pain, love, and defiance within the Black LGBTQIA+ community in South Africa

The portraits in their Being series capture the intimacy between couples, everyday moments, their routines, and situations in which they express their love for each other. These images reveal that gender fluidity and same-sex relationships have always existed in Africa, challenging the false belief that they were introduced through colonization.

The portraits in their Being series capture the intimacy between couples, everyday moments, their routines, and situations in which they express their love for each other

For Muholi, it is also important to represent transgender women, gay men, and gender non-conforming people in public spaces, some of which hold historical significance, such as beaches that symbolize racial segregation during apartheid. This act gives the people depicted the rightful place they deserve in these spaces.

For Muholi, it is also important to represent transgender women, gay men, and gender non-conforming people in public spaces, some of which hold historical significance

In their Brave Beauties series, Muholi creates portraits of trans women, gender non-conforming, and non-binary individuals. Inspired by fashion magazines, these portraits allow the participants to embrace their beauty, defying imposed standards of white supremacy and heteronormativity. Many of the participants are or have been contestants in beauty pageants, using this platform as a way to challenge and transform the mindset of their communities.

In another room of the exhibition, there are images of weddings and funerals. Christianity and spirituality are deeply important to the people featured in this exhibit. These photographs depict services led by pastors from churches either founded by LGBTQIA+ people or created for their community, providing a safe space for worship. These churches offer refuge to those who may have been rejected by mainstream churches, their families, friends, or broader communities.

The exhibition also includes sculptures that, like the powerful and thought-provoking photographs, explore themes of racism, Eurocentrism, discrimination against minorities such as the LGBTQIA+ community, and sexual politics.