Zanele Muholi

Zanele Muholi (born 19 July 1972) is a South African artist and visual activist working in photography, video, and installation.

Before 1994, black lesbian voices were excluded from the making of a formal queer movement.

Muholi's efforts of creating a more positive visualization of LGBTI Africans combats the homophobic-motivated violence that is prevalent in South Africa today, especially in the case of black lesbians.

While black women's bodies appear frequently throughout sexualized pop-culture, black lesbians are viewed (through the lens of the patriarchy and heteronormativity) as undesirable.

This negative view of homosexuals in Africa lead to violence, such as murder and rape, and rejection from their families.

Muholi's work focuses on race, gender and sexuality with a body of work that dates back to the early 2000s, documenting and celebrating the lives of South Africa's Black lesbian, gay, transgender, and intersex communities.

Muholi is non-binary and uses they/them pronouns, explaining that "I'm just human".

Muholi completed an Advanced Photography course at the Market Photo Workshop in Newtown, Johannesburg in 2003, and held their first solo exhibition at the Johannesburg Art Gallery in 2004.

In 2003, and their sense of community definitively began to include trans people.

Muholi was employed as a photographer and reporter for Behind the Mask, an online magazine on LGBTI issues in Africa.

In 2009 they were awarded their Master of Fine Arts degree in Documentary Media from Ryerson University in Toronto.

Their thesis mapped the visual history of black lesbian identity and politics in post-Apartheid South Africa.

Muholi's Zukiswa (2010), shows an African lesbian woman making eye contact with the viewer, displaying an unwavering gaze of confidence, self-awareness, and determination.

This example encourages awareness, acceptance, and positivity with the queer community as well as South Africa.

Although Muholi became known as a photographer who engaged with the then-invisible lives of black lesbians in South Africa, they began to recognize this idea of "gender within gender."

On 28 October 2013, they were appointed Honorary Professor – video and photography at the University of the Arts Bremen in Germany.

Muholi's photography has been compared to the way W.E.B. DuBois subverted the typical representations of African Americans.

Both Muholi and Du Bois have created an archive of photos, working to dismantle dominant, pre-existing perceptions of the subjects they chose to photograph.

Muholi views their work as collaborative, referring to the individuals they photograph as "participants" rather than as subjects.

With the term "participants" Muholi allows their participants to collaborate on poses instead of Muholi placing them in positions.

Seeking to empower their subjects, Muholi often invites participants to speak at events and exhibitions, adding the participant's voice to the conversation.

Through their artistic approach they hope to document the journey of the African queer community as a record for future generations.

They try to capture the moment without negativity or focusing on the prevalent violence, portraying the LGBTQI community as individuals and as a whole to encourage unity.

Thus, their work can be considered documentative, recording the overall community LGBTI of South Africa and their challenges, and at times, more specifically the struggle of black lesbians.

In 2014, they presented at the Design Indaba Conference in Cape Town.

Muholi was shortlisted for the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize in 2015.

They received an Infinity Award from the International Center of Photography in 2016, a Chevalier de Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2016, and an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society in 2018.

Muholi had a restrospective exhibition on at Maison européenne de la photographie in Paris from 1 February to 25 May 2023.

Their work was also shown that year at Mudec-Museo delle Culture in Milan, from 31 March through 30 July 2023, showcasing 60 self-portraits in black and white chosen especially for Mudec.

Zanele Muholi was born and raised in Umlazi, Durban, KwaZulu-Natal.

Their father was Ashwell Tanji Banda Muholi and their mother was Bester Muholi.

They are the youngest of eight children.

Muholi's father died shortly after their birth, and their mother was a domestic worker who had to leave her children to work for a white family during Apartheid in South Africa.

Muholi was raised by an extended family.

Muholi has described themselves as a visual activist as opposed to an artist.

They are dedicated to increasing the visibility of black lesbian, gay, transgender, and intersex people.

They researched and documented the stories of hate crimes against the LGBTQI community in order to bring forth the realities of "corrective rape," assault, and HIV/AIDS, to public attention.

They hold a Master of Fine Arts degree in Documentary Media from Ryerson University in Toronto and were appointed Honorary Professor – video and photography at the University of the Arts Bremen in Germany.

Muholi was a speaker at WorldPride Madrid Summit 2017.

They co-chaired the Madrid Summit Declaration with Federico Mayor Zaragoza, Myrna Cunningham and Gopi Shankar Madurai.