FACES & PHASES 2006 - 2014 - A BOOK THAT EVERY FAMILY MUST OWN

World's first "Lesbian bible" Faces & Phases book by international acclaimed photographer & film maker Zanele Muholi. 

 Pictures from www.inkanyiso.org 

Zanele Muholi who recently launched the faces & phases publication published by Steild embarks on a journey of "visual activism" to ensure black queer & transgender visibility from Africa & beyond. 

The extraordinary publication is a collection of black portraits that has been captured over the past 8 years. 

Over 250 portraits are featured on the book and are accompanied by moving testimonies by many "participants" that are about their experiences. Some of the participants share their stories on being lesbian mothers, disclosing their HIV/Aids status & their day to day life experiences. 

The book has been launched in different cities around the world including Johannesburg, Durban, New York, Stockholm, France & Amsterdam to name a few places. 

The book also features a very interesting poem by the Durban born & based poet Andiswa Dlamini titled "I used to be a Lesbian" 

Here is how it reads: 

I used to be lesbian

Let me explain

I use to look at girls in a particular way

Where I could imagine her in the conclusion of each page

Man, I loved women

I used to tease them,
taste them,
feel them,
love them,
fuck them…

I liked all the different shapes of a woman

See, I used to be lesbian

Walk the streets and get defeated by his construction of living life

I used to listen to his thoughts

So I know that every time I walk by

His already undressed me,
and I’d get home and question what he sees

I used to be lesbian

In fact my first heart break was with a woman

And I didn’t know how to handle it so
I became a heart breaker
just so that I could see how others were dealing with the intensity you feel when you’ve lost the love
you thought was the one

Until I found another kind of love

So intense I was afraid to hold her
because I knew I’d be singing songs of eternity

I used to be lesbian

Until one night that tragedy happened to me

And I never saw it coming

I was pinned to the floor

Forced to kiss the ground

it was him…him ontop of me

I was gasping to scream

But his dick couldn’t let me

He was whispering his imaginary scriptures to me

I used to be lesbian

until I looked into his eyes

And saw a beast a site that could never be God’s creation…
this was the work of satan

My cry was his motivational speech

So I laid there in silence

To withstand the violence

And my soul had already left me

I used to be lesbian

But when he left me

I cuddled a big rock

Mother nature was the nearest woman
I could find warmth in

I used to be lesbian

but now my final words

Are on a tomb stone

Because he showed me the power of a man

And I could never love that

So I killed myself because

I knew that I could never stand corrected

It wasn’t one of Shakespeare’s tragedies

This was no love story

I used to be lesbian

But in heaven God said

We are not defined by titles

So now I live as a woman that loves…

The poem is also published on www.inkanyiso.rg 

Muholi explains the project as part of marking, mapping, and preserving an often invisible community for prosperity especially that the LGBTI people never get positive images from the media.  

Faces & Phases 2006 - 2014 is shortlisted for the Deutsche Borse Photography Prize for 2015.

Should you wish to get yourself a copy, you can order here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Zanele-Muholi-Faces-Phases-2006-14/dp/3869308079

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