FACES & PHASES BY PHOTOGRAPHER/ACTIVIST, ZANELE MUHOLI

South African black lesbian photographer, director of the documentary “Difficult Love” which recently shown at the London Film Festival, Zanele Muholi, who always managed to keep media and politicians talking about her work had an opportunity to showcase her work at the GOETHE INSTITUT(http://www.goethe.de/ins/za/joh/ver/en10022821v.htm) in Rosebank Tuesday night where showcased photographs of black lesbian, women and transmen from around South African townships and surroundings. The exhibition oppening attracted mixed groups of races and cultures.

Zanele Muholi

Regardless of the difficulties of “Difficult Love” producer and director had experienced when all her material was stolen in her apartment she was still able to produce such fine art that she showcased at the ZANELE MUHOLI: FACES & PHASES exhibition, which she appreciated all the people who contributed on getting some material replaced even though the work she had produced over 5 years at least will not be recovered. On her speech she delivered she kept it simply and straight forward which is unusual and allowed the audience to communicate with her and of course with a glass of something to allow some people to be free and get courage to ask her any question as she wanted everyone to walk out of the auditorium having a full understanding of what her work is all about.

Zanele Muholi & Gaily Fleur - PHASES & FACES

When Zanele briefed about FACES & FACES she said; “in this project I present our existence and resistance through positive imagery of black queers, especially lesbian in our society and beyond. Faces are about face-to-face confrontation between me as a photographer/activist and the many queer people I have photographed/interacted with from different places. Phases articulate the collective pain we as community experience due to the loss of friends through disease and hate crimes”.

The event also allowed a lot of people to network and it created a platform for other young artists to grow. Photographer/activist, Muholi is hoping to host FACES & FACES exhibition in Durban soon. The project was also included in dOCUMENTA (13) in Kassel & Oldenburg, Germany. More on Muholi's recent projects please visi http://www.stevenson.info/exhibitions/muholi/documenta2012.html and   http://www.stevenson.info/news.html

Follow up article on EXIT on my column, January 2013 issue. For more interactions follow me on twitter @Yaya_Longoria also, stay tuned for updates about the launch of my website as I will blog though my new blog on my site xxx.