Zanele Muholi: Why are black lives so fascinating?
Why are we here?
Can I own my voice?
Can I own me?
Because my mother never had an opportunity to own her own voice until she died.
There are a lot of beautiful humans out there who get to be in covers of magazines
and they're loved dearly.
Why are ordinary people only featured in any magazine when there's tragedy?
Why are there no images of queer people, especially black people and yet people are told that
you have a right to be?
Yes, apartheid period has its own visuals.
Those were photography of resistance.
They known, they common, they bloody.
I just wanted to produce images that spoke to me as a person.
That still speak to me now.
I'm boiling inside.
Like any other great men.
I want to be counted in history.
I want to produce that history.
I want to basically say, this is me.
[Singing in foreign language]
....shines in the dark, so much darkness like you are alone. Little star, that shines in the dark
[Singing fades softly into background]
Zanele: I photograph myself to remind thyself that you exist.
I am born by Malawian father and Zulu mom.
We were eight siblings in all and four of my siblings died.
Now we are four.
I'm looking at this print, it’s supposed to be sharper, but is not super sharp
and there's floating hairs.
My mother worked so hard.
When my father died she had to take care of many of us.
I guess most of what I do is shaped by her life and a way of doing things.
This is “Somnyama Ngonyama,” a series.
What is important is the space that I occupy, my being, my presence there,
and then the objects that are found within those settings.
Then those objects need to have a specific meaning.
This is the tube of a bicycle is significant to most South Africans who are fine-tuned
with apartheid history.
It speaks on necklacing.
Your enemies would put on the tire
and set you alight right there in that spot.
This was specially dedicated to my sister who then passed a few days after the image
was taken.
Most of the “Somnyama Ngonyama” images, are Zulu titled because Zulu is my language.
“Bona,” which means "See," was taken in an old hotel in Charlottesville.
This says you were at this place at this particular time and you survived because nobody knows
what might happen.
Talking about like life and death,
I had to go through a serious operation.
And I never thought that I would be alive.
I lost a lot of blood and the image that I took is called “Julile”
and I shot it with plastics which represented tumors.
Giving thanks for being alive is very, very, very important to me.
Put Thembi here.
I want to make an introduction in 30 seconds.
Most of the time I go to locations where people live.
I was born in the township.
I liked the vibe of the townships of Johannesburg.
People connect with their own spaces and they become comfortable if it's safe to be in those spaces.
[Speaker in Instagram video] We are here to do a follow-up photo shoot of “Faces and Phases.”
Zanele Muholi: So you just do a short introduction and I just want to roll it.
You speak Zulu, or Sotho, or English, so we do in three languages.
But have some energy please.
Yes, the energy you possess when you dance.
- Up or down?
Zanele Muholi: Up. Up. Up. Up.
- Right here?
Zanele Muholi: Yes. Yeah, cool.
Ayanda: Okay, hi.
I am Ayanda Masina.
This is me four years ago, and this is me now.
Uh...
Zanele Muholi: Cut.
[laughter]
Zanele Muholi: The people of Johannesburg are here to work, unlike in Cape Town and other cities,
we are here to hustle.
- You got it right. You were flowing nicely there.
Remember, we want this to trend on Instagram!
[laughter]
♪ ♪
I photograph different LGBTI individuals, risking my life,
challenging the myth that say,
being gay, being trans is un-African.
When I started “Faces and Phases”, I just wanted to produce a project that will live
beyond us.
As people reach different stages in their lives, they get to be documented and they
share for the LGBTI community.
It's a lifetime project.
The book's supposed to come out in volumes.
The next publication will be out next year, which then marks another period in our lives.
I am a member of the community.
We hardly find images that speaks of love and joys of LGBTI individuals,
so then it becomes the issue of ownership.
I told myself that I would do better than any other outsider to project our lives.
I always say to people, it's one thing to have the constitution.
It's something else to have the document that speaks to that constitution.
You can't say people have a right to exist without visuals that are produced by us on us.
A simple image of a queer being in space.
That's political.
“Faces and Phases” becomes one of those important documents that comes out from Africa.
One of the first individuals that I work with happen to be a friend
and her name is Busi Sigasa.
She was a 25-year-old who was a curative rape survivor,
and she succumbed to HIV complications
and died in 2007 in March.
I'm always reminded of her work and contributions that she made,
daring and speaking out on hate crimes, on curative rapes,
on all that was unjust.
She'll always be remembered.
- Don't frown, sir.
The stripes have to be straight. Collen needs stripes.
That’s his duvet!
Every year I try to capture a nice picture of Collen.
Collen has his own series documenting himself and his community
and also, he's teaching photography to youth in this township.
[laughter]
- First of all, she couldn't even see they were her photos.
- I was trying to remember.
Collen Mfazwe: These are our new students from different township.
Lerato Dumse: We always interested in training black women who believe in black media diversity,
media ownership,
so that's really what's the driving force for me.
Zanele Muholi: So please give us the background, Monde.
What's happening? What are we about to see?
- Here I am at Sinaba Stadium in Daveyton.
There was a challenge, between the township boys, challenging each other in soccer.
Zanele: Sharp, no problem.
I appreciate the effort.
Framing is good.
I'm okay.
There is somebody who almost got in.
You see, on the left.
Nonetheless, we will work on that,
but I like the two and the two at the back.
Do you see them?
Yeah, very, very interesting.
It's the crew that I work with.
It's people that I pay for their education or sponsor for their causes.
And most of them, they are graduates from Market Photo Workshop,
which is a school I attended which was started by David Goldblatt,
who later became my mentor.
And he becomes one of the most important human beings in my life because he financed for my education,
So I have learned from David to say sharing is caring.
The person who has given you her time or his time
so you can't waste it.
♪ ♪
So I'm doing a follow up with Kat on "Brave Beauties."
“Brave Beauties” is a project that looks specifically at trans women who are beauty queens.
My history of documenting beauty pageants is personal.
Twenty years ago, exactly now, I entered a contest and I won.
I wanted to reminisce and go back to that space and I produced portraits of myself on
residency in Amsterdam.
Beauty pageants and drag shows, they create space that's safe for LGBTI individuals to
express themselves,
which is not what they usually do on daily basis.
Miss Divine is one of the most important humans in our lives,
for people who like drag shows here.
I recognize drag queens as cultural activists because they educate with their performance.
She's wearing red high heel shoes and a Zulu beaded skirt,
which is meant to be worn by a woman coming of age.
The Africans, we're proud of our tribes, and some of us still stick to the tradition.
- Bathini, we need a brush, girl.
I always stress to each and every person that I photograph to look good,
look good because you’ll be seen by many people.
[laughter]
Please make the girl comfortable.
Time is against us.
I work with people who are partaking in a historical project, who are informing many
individuals, including me about their lives.
So it's very important for me that I respect the fact that they've trusted me
enough to be there.
I work with participants.
There are no subjects in my photography.
[cheers and applause]
Odidi Odidiva Mfenyana: Well, um, hi everybody!
I’m still recovering
from the party yesterday.
[laughter]
Zanele is just absolutely the most craziest person I’ve ever met.
She has made me do more crazy things that I have done in my life.
But I have to say from the bottom of my heart thank you so much.
This is a great way to end both Women's Month.
Crowd: Yes!
- Yes!
[snapping] - ♪ Whatever you want ♪
Crowd: Whoo!
- ♪ Whatever you need ♪
♪ Oh, anything you want done, baby ♪
♪ I'll do it naturally ♪
- Everybody sing!
Crowd: ♪ I'm every woman ♪
♪ It's all in me ♪
Zanele Muholi: History could easily be projected and produced
by those who live it.
[crowd singing]
Zanele Muholi: We work speaking resistance, speaking existence.
- That was beautiful. That was beautiful.
Zanele Muholi: We’re not done yet.
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