For over two decades, Zanele Muholi has documented the beauty, bravery, and resilience of Black LGBTQ+ individuals in South Africa. As a multimedia artist and a visual activist, Muholi has repeatedly caught the world’s attention through their revolutionary photography, using their lens to unearth the realities of Black queer life while also celebrating and embracing Blackness and gender expression. Their current exhibition, Zanele Muholi: Eye Me, is open at the SFMOMA until August 11th, and it not only expanses art from their entire career, but also represents a major feat in this artist’s journey.
Zanele Muholi is a non-binary South African artist (they/them), and activism and representation of the Black queer community is central to everything they do. They specifically use photography as a tool of resistance and vessel for spreading social change. Zanele Muholi: Eye Me is a special collection of over one hundred of the Muholi’s well-known photographs and paintings, also including a video and sculpture installation. Being their first major exhibition on the West Coast, not only is the show an opportunity for viewers to experience Muholi’s expansive art practice, but it also brings an important representation to the Black queer community in post-Apartheid South Africa.
The exhibition starts from their first photographic series from 2002, Only Half the Picture, that documented survivors of homophobic hate crimes in South Africa, and extends until their ongoing work like Faces and Phases, which started in 2006 and acts as a visual archive of Black queer life. This series is especially significant because the thirty-six portraits selected for the exhibition are accompanied by a video interview with the subjects in order to further highlight their stories. Along with pieces from the artist’s many other projects, the exhibition also includes a collection of self portraits, their 2010 documentary Difficult Love, and a bronze sculpture.
Muholi’s photographs radiate a unique intimacy, establishing a spellbinding tenderness between the viewer and the subject. To Muholi, the people they photograph are more than just subjects, they are artistic collaborators who actively take part in the photographic process. One of their main goals is to make more space for Black queer life in the museum, and by telling their story and the story of many others in their community, they are making sure their voices are heard.
Zanele Muholi, LiZa I, from the series Being, 2009; courtesy the artist and Yancey Richardson, New York; © Zanele Muholi
Zanele Muholi, Yaya Mavundla, Parktown, Johannesburg, from the series Brave Beauties, 2014; courtesy the artist and Yancey Richardson, New York; © Zanele Muholi
Zanele Muholi, Miss D'vine II, 2007; courtesy the artist and Yancey Richardson, New York; © Zanele Muholi
Zanele Muholi, Katlego Mashiloane and Nosipho Lavuta, Ext. 2, Lakeside, Johannesburg, from the series Being, 2007; courtesy the artist and Yancey Richardson, New York; © Zanele Muholi
Zanele Muholi, Lebo Leptie Phume Daveyton, Johannesburg, 2013; courtesy the artist and Yancey Richardson, New York; © Zanele Muholi
Zanele Muholi, Thathu I, The Sails, Durban, 2019; collection of Pamela and David Hornik; © Zanele Muholi
Zanele Muholi, Muholi, 2021; Bill and Christy Gautreaux Collection, Kansas City, MO; © Zanele Muholi
Zanele Muholi, Somile, 2021; collection of Christine Mack; © Zanele Muholi
Zanele Muholi, Hate Crimes Survivor I, from the series Only Half the Picture, 2004; courtesy the artist and Yancey Richardson, New York; © Zanele Muholi