📷 Zanele Muholi: Visual Activism with a Lens of Power
Zanele Muholi doesn’t take portraits. They create monuments.
Born in Umlazi in 1972, Muholi is a self-described "visual activist" whose photography gives voice and visibility to South Africa’s Black LGBTQ+ community. Through striking black-and-white portraits, they celebrate queer beauty, resilience, and defiance.
Their ongoing series Faces and Phases documents queer and trans individuals across South Africa, transforming everyday people into icons of dignity and pride.
Muholi also turns the lens on themself, challenging conventions of race, gender, and representation. Their self-portraits are part armor, part ritual, part rebirth.
Why they matter:
Exhibited at Tate Modern, Venice Biennale, and beyond
Honoured with the Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters (France)
Work featured in TIME's 100 Most Influential People
In every image, Muholi demands that we see—not just look. Their work is not only art—it’s revolution.
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