Zanele Muholi

Zanele Muholi
Zanele at the 2011 International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival
Born	(1972-07-19) 19 July 1972 (age 44) Umlazi, Durban
Nationality	South African
Known for	Photography

Zanele Muholi (Born 19 July 1972 in Umlazi, Durban) is a South African photographer and visual activist. Zanele Muholi is a visual activist who tries to bring light to the importance of black lesbian women in South Africa. Through her artistic approach she hopes to document the journey of the African queer community as a record for future generations. She tries to capture the moment without negativity or focusing on the prevalent violence, portraying the LGBTQI community as individuals and as a whole to encourage unity

Muholi was born to Ashwell Tanji Banda Muholi and Bester Muholi and she is the youngest of 5 children. She completed an Advanced Photography course at the Market Photo Workshop in Newtown, Johannesburg in 2003, and held her first solo exhibition at the Johannesburg Art Gallery in 2004. In 2009 she was awarded her Master of Fine Arts degree in Documentary Media from Ryerson University in Toronto. Her thesis mapped the visual history of black lesbian identity and politics in post-Apartheid South Africa.

Muholi was employed as a photographer and reporter for Behind the Mask, an online magazine on LGBTI issues in Africa. In 2002, she co-founded the Forum for the Empowerment of Women (FEW), a black lesbian organization dedicated to providing a safe space for women to meet and organize. She researched and documented the stories of hate crimes against the gay community in order to bring forth the realities of “corrective rape”, assault, and HIV/AIDS, to public attention.