Zanele Muholi in "Johannesburg" - Season 9 - "Art in the Twenty-First Century" | Art21

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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