Zanele Muholi, a South African photographer whose work has been exhibited all over the world, speaks to SenseOnline about photography, art, pornography and black queers.
The Story of Doughnut
I had only been living in my new apartment for a few weeks when I noticed that my neighbours had acquired a dog. Over the next few days it dawned on me that while they had the dog Doughnut, it didn’t have a kennel and slept outside. As it was during one of the coldest spells in winter, I was distraught over the dog.
I resolved to do something. I went to my neighbours’ apartment and spoke to the lady of the house. I made sure that my voice was gentle and non-accusatory. I even offered to buy the kennel myself. She explained Doughnut had been rescued and was only with her for a few weeks before being taken to the home of her relatives who had a kennel waiting for him.
I thanked her, relieved that the dog was being looked after. However, the story didn’t end there. Within half an hour I had her partner knocking on my door. He was furious. He told me in no uncertain terms that he thought I was meddling in business that was none of my concern and, if I really had a problem, I should have called the SPCA before I accused them of animal abuse.
Speaking Out Against Evil
It made no difference to my neighbour when I tried to explain that as a fanatical animal lover I was just concerned about the wellbeing of the dog and I had never accused him or his partner of anything. He mentioned that I had made his partner cry and told me that I should mind my own business.
That hurt. That gnawing pain that twists at your insides is the same sentiment world-renowned photographer Zanele Muholi felt when the Minister of Arts and Culture, Lulu Xingwana, pronounced her exhibition ‘pornographic’.
In fact, but rather erroneously, Zanele Muholi is becoming, in
Photographing Black Queers
Her portrayal of ‘black queers’, as she calls her subjects, shows a strength and bravery in which she hopes to show the world a culture of black men and women whose sexuality has led to their vilification. Her intimate and honest portrayal of people has raised many eyebrows and slurs have been thrown at her.
However, the question is, as it always should be for each of us, should we not be concerned with what is happening around us, especially when we are witnesses to abuse? Is it not our responsibility as members of our communities to know what really goes on next door?
Humanitarians Who have Spoken for a Cause
The world is filled with people, through history and into the present day, who have gone against the grain. Think Mahatma Gandhi, Albie Sachs, Justice Edwin Cameron, Martin Luther King, Patrice Lumumba, Albertina Sisulu and Criselda Kananda – people who stood up in the face of apathy to declare that they were not happy with the status quo.
They were jailed, tortured, beaten, vilified, spat on and even killed because they believed in something other than the majority social order. They fought for what they believed to be right. As Martin Luther King Jr said: ‘He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.’
The Role of Photography In Zanele Muholi’s Life
Zanele Muholi, in her own way, sees herself as, amongst other things, a visual activist. She uses her art to speak out on behalf of the marginalised – the black lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.
When she was a young girl growing up in the
‘It was one of my observations,’ she explains. ‘There weren’t many images back then that spoke to me. I knew that someone had to do something about the visual portrayal of who we are as a people.’
Art Chooses the Photographer
During apartheid the likes of Santu Mofekeng, Guy Tillim, Paul Weinberg, Peter Magubane, Jurgen Schadeberg and Alf Khumalo were capturing what would show up in papers and magazines. The photography industry was male dominated and, as it is today, there were very few black female photographers.
Zanele wanted something that would ‘help her reach an edge’ and, although she hoped she could try her hand at various crafts and professions, such as dancing or gynaecology, it was photography that opened a new world for her. She soon realised that she ‘reached a climax, a feeling of bliss, whenever I took photographs’. And
This fascinating woman, clearly very confident with a wicked sense of humour and an inviting feeling of camaraderie, completed an advanced photography course at the Market Photo Workshop in
Muholi’s Subject Matter
Her subject of black queers seemed appropriate, as she is an openly black lesbian, but this identity reveals only a part of who she is and with whom and what she works with.
‘I go beyond just black women who have multiple identities. First they have the identity of being black, then being female or trans [both male and female], then being queer, and perhaps you are poor too, which is another layer of your identity. And then a new subject matter for me is the issue of transgender, which is also another layer to whom one can be.’
Her work, which has been exhibited in many parts of the world, is a beautifully simple portrayal of the complexities that human beings live with. Some captured in black and white for greater contrast, her photographs speak volumes of one’s identity beyond just sexuality or race, but which also clearly illustrate feeling, unspoken words and intense emotions. In short, her work is stunning and one falls so easily in love with her sharp eye for detail, colour and caption.
The Exhibition of Faces and Phases
Currently, her exhibition Faces and Phases, which was held at Michael Stevenson last year, is showing at the 29th Sao Paulo Biennale. The works will also be part of the Afrovibes Festival in
Faces and Phases is a compilation of black-and-white portraits of lesbian women and some transgender individuals. Her work speaks for the men and women who feel ostracised and confused about their identities and it speaks to men and women who live next door, side by side with those who are struggling and, conversely, celebrating their different sexualities.
‘I am connected with the black identity. I own that body. I am born of one. I know what it’s like. It is my jive and anything that interferes with that body I will speak out.’
Accolades and Achievements
In 2002, Muholi co-founded the Forum for the Empowerment of Women (FEW), a black lesbian organisation based in Johannesburg and in 2008 founded Thokozani Football Club (TFC), which is a women-only soccer team based in Umlazi.
For her outspokenness, art and outstanding contributions to the study of sexuality in
The Photographer
Her work takes an honest, hard look at what it means to carry so many different identities. It is raw, at times achingly beautiful, sometimes hard to look at and, at other times, it just moves you. Clearly, with so many accolades, she must be doing something right, but she refuses to ‘claim’ the word ‘humanitarian’.
‘I don’t need to shout it out, nor do I want to complicate the word. Let’s just say I am doing humanitarian work.’
However, not many will agree with her. In fact, some have outrightly called her work pornographic and immoral. But the 17th century French sculptor August Rodin once said, ‘In art immorality cannot exist. Art is always sacred.’ Perhaps you should judge for yourself.
Pornography versus Eroticism in Art
Professor of Philosophy at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth, Bert Oliver, offered the following in an article for the Mail & Guardian’s The Thought Leader, when asked to speak on pornography and the question of censorship: ‘Most people erroneously equate pornography and eroticism or erotic art. Eroticism in art, ranging from television, film, and painting to photography, may include nudity and sex, but lacks a crucial feature of pornography, namely the (violent) subjugation of women by various means.’
One of the Minister of Arts and Culture’s gripes with Muholi’s Being series exhibition was the fact that there were children present where potentially pornographic material was placed. To support Muholi’s argument that children should learn and know and indeed question the idea of identity, Professor Oliver goes on to say: ‘I do believe that far more should be done in schools and universities to educate pupils and students about the nature of pornography, so that they can recognise it and criticise it, as it should be criticised. When this happens, people learn to reject pornography — not eroticism — for what it is: the (potentially violent) depiction, and therefore ostensible justification, of the subjugation of women.’
Nudity and Sex in Photography
Eroticism has existed in art for millennia from the works of Salvador Dali to Pablo Picasso, even including Michaelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, George Grosz and Egon Schiele. In fact, we have a forward-leaning constitution that protects the rights of people to speak, say and do whatever they want as long as their rights do not infringe on others, which of course then becomes a crime and the person is liable to be charged.
The deeds of Nelson Mandela to free his people were seen as treason for which he could have been sentenced to death. In the apartheid regime many photographers put their lives on the line in order to document the several injustices that were the way of life back then.
According to South African History: ‘One episode that especially highlights the power of the photographic image as a means of opposition is represented by images showing the Soweto uprising of 1976…one particular struggle picture, showing a dead child being carried away from the conflict, became iconic of the brutality of the apartheid regime.’
The Photograph Speaks Out Lest We Forget
To mark the horror that was the Holocaust where millions of Jews were killed is a memorial on which it is written, ‘Lest we forget.’ Taken from Rudyard Kipling’s poem, Recessional, it is a phrase often used to highlight injustices all over the world so that we never forget the darkness that can exist in the human spirit.
Simon Nkoli was a homosexual activist who spoke out against the injustices faced not only by people of black, coloured, Indian descent, but also people who were not heterosexual. At his funeral Mosuioa ‘Terror’ Lekota said: ‘During those days, an awareness grew that in the South Africa after apartheid nobody should be excluded from equal rights…When we sat down at the negotiation table it was self-evident that we would stand up for our homosexual comrades as well.’
Let Us Talk About It
It is because of the heroic acts of those who have gone before us that we enjoy the freedom that is ours today – lest we forget. Zanele Muholi’s voice is borne in film and raised through the eye. She speaks out against various injustices, not just sexuality, but also against child and woman abuse, corrective rape, disease (HIV and cancer) and the ostracisation and killings of albinos. Her question every time one of her photographs is taken and shown around the world, and especially here in our country, is, ‘How do we talk about it?’
