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Zanele Muholi: Why are black lives so fascinating?

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Why are we here?

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Can I own my voice?

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Can I own me?

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Because my mother never had an opportunity
to own her own voice until she died.

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There are a lot of beautiful humans out there who get
to be in covers of magazines

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and they're loved dearly.

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Why are ordinary people only featured in any
magazine when there's tragedy?

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Why are there no images of queer people, especially
black people and yet people are told that

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you have a right to be?

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Yes, apartheid period has its own visuals.

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Those were photography of resistance.

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They known, they common, they bloody.

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I just wanted to produce images that spoke
to me as a person.

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That still speak to me now.

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I'm boiling inside.

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Like any other great men.

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I want to be counted in history.

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I want to produce that history.

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I want to basically say, this is me.

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[Singing in foreign language]

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....shines in the dark, so much darkness like you are alone. Little star, that shines in the dark

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[Singing fades softly into background]

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Zanele: I photograph myself to remind thyself
that you exist.

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I am born by Malawian father and Zulu mom.

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We were eight siblings in all and four of
my siblings died.

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Now we are four.

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I'm looking at this print, it’s supposed
to be sharper, but is not super sharp

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and there's floating hairs.

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My mother worked so hard.

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When my father died she had to take care of many of us.

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I guess most of what I do is shaped by her
life and a way of doing things.

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This is “Somnyama Ngonyama,” a series.

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What is important is the space that I occupy,
my being, my presence there,

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and then the objects that are found within
those settings.

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Then those objects need to 
have a specific meaning.

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This is the tube of a bicycle is significant
to most South Africans who are fine-tuned

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with apartheid history.

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It speaks on necklacing.

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Your enemies would put on the tire

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and set you alight right there in that spot.

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This was specially dedicated to my sister
who then passed a few days after the image

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was taken.

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Most of the “Somnyama Ngonyama” images,
are Zulu titled because Zulu is my language.

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“Bona,” which means "See," was taken in an 
old hotel in Charlottesville.

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This says you were at this place at this particular
time and you survived because nobody knows

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what might happen.

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Talking about like life and death,

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I had to go through a serious operation.

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And I never thought that I would be alive.

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I lost a lot of blood and the image that I
took is called “Julile”

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and I shot it with plastics which represented tumors.

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Giving thanks for being alive is very, very,
very important to me.

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Put Thembi here.

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I want to make an introduction in 30 seconds.

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Most of the time I go to locations where people live.

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I was born in the township.

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I liked the vibe of the townships of Johannesburg.

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People connect with their own spaces and they
become comfortable if it's safe to be in those spaces.

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[Speaker in Instagram video] 
We are here to do a follow-up photo 
shoot of “Faces and Phases.”

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Zanele Muholi: So you just do a short introduction
and I just want to roll it.

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You speak Zulu, or Sotho, or English, so we
do in three languages.

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But have some energy please.

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Yes, the energy you possess when you dance.

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- Up or down?

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Zanele Muholi:
Up. Up. Up. Up.

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- Right here?

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Zanele Muholi:
Yes. Yeah, cool.

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Ayanda:
Okay, hi.

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I am Ayanda Masina.

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This is me four years ago, and this is me now.

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Uh...

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Zanele Muholi:
Cut.

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[laughter]

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Zanele Muholi: The people of Johannesburg are here
to work, unlike in Cape Town and other cities,

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we are here to hustle.

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- You got it right. You were flowing nicely there.

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Remember, we want this to trend on Instagram!

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[laughter]

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♪ ♪

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I photograph different LGBTI individuals,
risking my life,

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challenging the myth that say,

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being gay, being trans is un-African.

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When I started “Faces and Phases”, I just
wanted to produce a project that will live

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beyond us.

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As people reach different stages in their
lives, they get to be documented and they

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share for the LGBTI community.

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It's a lifetime project.

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The book's supposed to come out in volumes.

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The next publication will be out next year,
which then marks another period in our lives.

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I am a member of the community.

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We hardly find images that speaks of love
and joys of LGBTI individuals,

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so then it becomes the issue of ownership.

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I told myself that I would do better than
any other outsider to project our lives.

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I always say to people, it's one thing to
have the constitution.

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It's something else to have the document that
speaks to that constitution.

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You can't say people have a right to exist
without visuals that are produced by us on us.

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A simple image of a queer being in space.

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That's political.

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“Faces and Phases” becomes one of those
important documents that comes out from Africa.

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One of the first individuals that I work with
happen to be a friend

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and her name is Busi Sigasa.

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She was a 25-year-old who was a curative rape survivor,

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and she succumbed to HIV complications

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and died in 2007 in March.

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I'm always reminded of her work and contributions
that she made,

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daring and speaking out on hate crimes, on
curative rapes,

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on all that was unjust.

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She'll always be remembered.

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- Don't frown, sir.

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The stripes have to be straight. Collen needs stripes.

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That’s his duvet!

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Every year I try to capture a nice picture of Collen.

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Collen has his own series documenting 
himself and his community

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and also, he's teaching photography to 
youth in this township.

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[laughter]

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- First of all, she couldn't even see they were her photos.

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- I was trying to remember.

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Collen Mfazwe: These are our new students from different township.

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Lerato Dumse: We always interested in training
black women who believe in black media diversity,

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media ownership,

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so that's really what's the driving force for me.

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Zanele Muholi: So please give us the
background, Monde.

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What's happening? What are we about to see?

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- Here I am at Sinaba Stadium in Daveyton.

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There was a challenge, between the township
boys, challenging each other in soccer.

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Zanele: Sharp, no problem.

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I appreciate the effort.

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Framing is good.

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I'm okay.

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There is somebody who almost got in.

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You see, on the left.

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Nonetheless, we will work on that,

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but I like the two and the two at the back.

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Do you see them?

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Yeah, very, very interesting.

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It's the crew that I work with.

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It's people that I pay for their education
or sponsor for their causes.

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And most of them, they are graduates from
Market Photo Workshop,

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which is a school I attended which 
was started by David Goldblatt,

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who later became my mentor.

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And he becomes one of the most important human
beings in my life because he financed for my education,

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So I have learned from David to say sharing is caring.

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The person who has given you her time or his time

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so you can't waste it.

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♪ ♪

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So I'm doing a follow up with Kat on "Brave Beauties."

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“Brave Beauties” is a project that looks
specifically at trans women who are beauty queens.

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My history of documenting beauty pageants
is personal.

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Twenty years ago, exactly now, I entered a
contest and I won.

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I wanted to reminisce and go back to that
space and I produced portraits of myself on

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residency in Amsterdam.

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Beauty pageants and drag shows, they create
space that's safe for LGBTI individuals to

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express themselves,

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which is not what they usually do on daily basis.

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Miss Divine is one of the most important humans
in our lives,

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for people who like drag shows here.

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I recognize drag queens as cultural activists
because they educate with their performance.

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She's wearing red high heel shoes and a Zulu
beaded skirt,

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which is meant to be worn by a woman coming of age.

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The Africans, we're proud of our tribes, and
some of us still stick to the tradition.

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- Bathini, we need a brush, girl.

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I always stress to each and every person that
I photograph to look good,

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look good because you’ll be seen by many people.

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[laughter]

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Please make the girl comfortable.

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Time is against us.

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I work with people who are partaking in a
historical project, who are informing many

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individuals, including me about their lives.

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So it's very important for me that I respect
the fact that they've trusted me

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enough to be there.

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I work with participants.

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There are no subjects
in my photography.

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[cheers and applause]

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Odidi Odidiva Mfenyana: Well, um, hi everybody!

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I’m still recovering

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from the party yesterday.

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[laughter]

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Zanele is just absolutely the most craziest
person I’ve ever met.

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She has made me do more crazy things that
I have done in my life.

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But I have to say from the bottom of my heart
thank you so much.

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This is a great way to end both Women's Month.

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Crowd:
Yes!

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- Yes!

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[snapping]
- ♪ Whatever you want ♪

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Crowd:
Whoo!

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- ♪ Whatever you need ♪

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♪ Oh, anything you want done, baby ♪

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♪ I'll do it naturally ♪

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- Everybody sing!

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Crowd:
♪ I'm every woman ♪

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♪ It's all in me ♪

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Zanele Muholi:
History could easily be projected and produced

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by those who live it.

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[crowd singing]

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Zanele Muholi: We work speaking resistance, speaking existence.

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- That was beautiful.
That was beautiful.

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Zanele Muholi: We’re not done yet.

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To learn more about Art21 and our educational resources,

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please visit us online at PBS.org/art21