Zanele Muholi

Eva Mofokeng I, Parktown, Johannesburg (Brave Beauties series)

As a visual activist for the rights of Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex (LBGTQI), Zanele Muholi’s photographs radically transgress the conventional perception of lesbian and transgender communities in South Africa. Members of the LBGTQI community who suffer from continuous attacks — “corrective” and “curative rapes,” physical and psychological assaults, and hate crimes — Muholi works from her own community to create strong and positive images of empowered individuals. As visual statements, her photographs seek to dignify the members of an often hidden, voiceless, and marginalized community. The verticality and scale of the prints accentuate the resilience of the figures, confronting the viewers with their scrutinizing and empowered gaze. The photographs support and promote self-expression, pride, and autonomy in the face of an oppressive social system to reshape and reclaim an authoritative black lesbian and transgender presence in the global landscape. Presenting the black and white photographs as first-person testimonies of homophobia, discrimination, and violence of LBGTQI black women, the Brave Beauties series thus acts as a conscription to autonomy and a visual activation of equal recognition.