Interview with South African photographer Zanele Muholi by Diane Frankel.

Zanele Muholi, is one of South Africa ‘s foremost artists. She sees herself as a visual activist. She addresses in her work the reality of what is to be lesbian and gay in South Africa where homosexuality is not accepted and where some cultural and social beliefs authorize the “ corrective rape” of gay women.  She captures her world, and gives visibility to black lesbians in her project Faces and Phases where she records the distinctiveness of each individual through the traditional genre of black and white portraiture.

There is an inherent bravery in her process as she and her sitters, by making themselves publicly known, put their life and livelihood at risk. Indeed, just this past April, Muholi had 20 external hard drives stolen from her flat in Vredehoek, Cape Town and since little else was taken it is fair to presume that her work was the target. That was five years of work!

In her words: “ The preservation and mapping of our histories is the only way for us black lesbians to be visible.”  ” I have seen people speaking and capturing images of lesbians on our behalf, as if we are incapable and mute… I refused to become subject matter for others and to be silenced. Many have exiled our female African bodies: by colonizers, by researchers, by men. Sarah Baartman became a spectacle for Europeans, and she died in a foreign land. She was never given a chance to speak for herself…It is for this reason that I say ‘ No, not yet another black body’”.

She was recently included in a group show Tete a Tete curated by Mickalene Thomas at Rhona Hoffman Gallery in Chicago, and in Appropriated Landscapes at the Walther Collection, New Ulm / Burlafingen. Her award-documentary Difficult Love is showing in St Petersburg and this summer Muholi will be showing a new series of over 25 portraits as part of Documenta 13 in Kassel, Germany.