Exhibited

Stevenson, Johannesburg, Being, 4 June to 7 July 2007, another example from the edition exhibited.

Provenance

The Gary Eisenberg Collection.

Notes

"Being is an exploration of both our existence and our resistance as lesbians/women loving women, as black women living our intersecting identities in a country that claims equality for all within the LGBTI community, and beyond."¹

Zanele Muholi gained prominence in the mid-2000s with photographs that documented and affirmed the lives of Black lesbians in South Africa. As a member of the Forum for the Empowerment of Women, a support organisation for Black lesbians, Muholi highlighted the injustices faced by this community. Their growing body of work rejected photographic clichés and binaries often associated with Black women, instead focusing on intimate and loving representations of their community. Starting in 2003, Muholi made portraits of lesbian couples in Gauteng. Often made indoors and on beds, the improvised quality of these early portraits yielded to a more formal approach in which subjects posed outdoors. This portrait blurs these finer distinctions, and in turn reflects Muholi's dynamic approach to collaboration, as well as ethics. "I have never approached a stranger to come and be part of my photography," Muholi, then a Hillbrow resident, explained.²

¹ Stevenson (n.d.) Zanele Muholi Being, online, https://archive.stevenson.info/exhibitions/muholi/being.htm, accessed 28 August 2024.

² Sean O'Toole (2006) 'Zanele Muholi: Are You Feeling A Little Uncomfortable?' Business Day Art, March, page 12.