No one has captured queer culture in South
Africa as authentically as Zanele Muholi. Through photography, she sees the
opportunity to tell real stories, with no filters, where the visibility of the
black LGBT+ community takes centre stage. Nobody can tell our story better
than ourselves, explains the guide to her exhibition at the San Francisco
Museum of Modern Art in the United States. In fact, Muholi finds the
inspiration needed to create art in her personal experiences and recently
presented us with Zanele Muholi: Eye Me, an exhibition that runs from
the January 18 to August 11, 2024 and which is curated by Shana Lopes, Erin O’Toole
and Sally Martin Katz. We’re talking about more than a hundred photographs
that, in their midst, contain paintings and sculptures with bold and intimate
expressions. The visual activist’s first exhibition on the West Coast, it
stands out for the intimacy achieved in each face and detail, heightened by the
sensitivity of the person who is in control of the camera through its lens.
When you have that predisposition and you achieve the authenticity of what you
look at, what the gestures say and what words don’t say, you pave the way for a
moving exhibition like this one, with works that will never lose their
relevance.
When it comes to viewing the exhibition, there is a sequence to take into account. Divided into series, the photographs cover different years and motifs. Only Half the Picture is a journey to South Africa’s townships, where hate crimes against queer survivors are documented. Brave Beauties features images of empowered transgender and non-binary women. The poses provoke body analyses that, when interpreted correctly, lead to interesting conclusions. Another series is Muholi’s Faces and Phases. Each photo is a black and white portrait in which the models give voice to a community that hopes to pass on its testimony to the world. This instalment includes a video in which the participants share their life stories. Somnyama Ngonyama is the final set of images, unusual in that it brings the public closer to Zanele’s life.
Eye Me is an exhibition that teaches us to look from the inside out, and not from the outside in – as stereotypes dictate. Now we ask ourselves: how many lives can you fit into a photograph?
When it comes to viewing the exhibition, there is a sequence to take into account. Divided into series, the photographs cover different years and motifs. Only Half the Picture is a journey to South Africa’s townships, where hate crimes against queer survivors are documented. Brave Beauties features images of empowered transgender and non-binary women. The poses provoke body analyses that, when interpreted correctly, lead to interesting conclusions. Another series is Muholi’s Faces and Phases. Each photo is a black and white portrait in which the models give voice to a community that hopes to pass on its testimony to the world. This instalment includes a video in which the participants share their life stories. Somnyama Ngonyama is the final set of images, unusual in that it brings the public closer to Zanele’s life.
Eye Me is an exhibition that teaches us to look from the inside out, and not from the outside in – as stereotypes dictate. Now we ask ourselves: how many lives can you fit into a photograph?
