The ongoing Faces and Phases series of black and white portraits by renowned photographer Zanele Muholi, commemorating and celebrating the lives of black lesbians, has been compiled into a book that will be available to the public in August 2010.

Published by Prestel Publishing, the book contains more than seventy portraits of black lesbians all over the world, that were shot over a period of three years in response to the abuse, rape and murder of homosexuals due to their sexuality and ethnicity.

“The Faces and Phases project has become an act of visual activism. It has always been my dream to publish a book on Faces and Phases, featured in the series are beautiful, young and older human beings from various places and one can’t distinguish who is from where or how each person defines herself or himself”, said Muholi.

Muholi explained that the portraits were taken between 2007 and 2010, and this shows the relationship she has with the people featured in the book as she wants to show them progressing in their lives by taking pictures of them in different spaces.

The photographs were taken in places such as Gauteng, Cape Town, London, Toronto, Alexandra, Soweto, Vosloorus, Khayelitsha, Gugulethu, Katlehong and Kagiso.

“It’s about taking images of real people, I want to show growth and progress in their lives, and I always revisit them and photograph them in different spaces and locations, some of them are still here with us and some have passed away already, we fondly remember Buhle Msibi, Busi Sigasa, Nosizwe Cekiso and Penny Fish, may they rest in peace”, said Muholi.

According to Muholi, Faces express the person and is also about the face to face confrontation between her as a photographer and activist and the many lesbians and transmen she has interacted with from different places. Whereas Phases signifies the transition from one stage of sexuality or gender expression and experience to another and articulates the collective pain we as a community experience due to the loss of friends and acquaintances through disease and hate crimes.

Faces and phases

Apinda Mpako whose picture is featured on the book said “It’s an honour to be featured on Faces and Phases, and in-fact, any of Zanele’s projects, she has an amazing eye and has harnessed her skill to the fullest, to think that this beautiful picture was taken after an eight hour day at the office, speaks volumes about her talent.”

“In Faces and Phases I present our existence and resistance through positive imagery of black queers, especially lesbians in the South African society and beyond. I show our aesthetics through portraiture, historically, portraits serve as memorable records for lovers, family and friends”, said Muholi.

At first glance when you look at the portraits you see different faces with undoubtedly different backgrounds but confronted by the same social injustices and Muholi explains, “People are people, although we speak different languages and go through many stages, we can find commonalities in the many identities which unfold in parallel in our existence.”

Looking at the faces you get to see the scars, facial expressions and how the people photographed present themselves, which causes one to be curious of the stories behind their faces and what they have endured as black lesbians and how we are intertwined as people.

“The viewer is invited to contemplate questions such as, what does an African lesbian look like, is there a lesbian aesthetic or do we express our gendered, racialised and classed selves in rich and diverse ways, is this lesbian more ‘authentic’ than that lesbian because she wears a tie and the other does not, is this a man or a woman, is this a transman, can you identify a rape survivor by the clothes she wears”, says Muholi.

Nok’thula Ncube also featured on the book said “for me to be on the book was a surprise, I didn’t expect to find myself in there and that can only mean I am doing something right, and I am happy that people will recognise my face in the book and know that I am lesbian and to know that lesbians exist.”

Blessings

Ncube also applauded Muholi’s work saying “she is doing a great job and I wish her a lot of blessings and to keep on doing what she does, she will always be remembered for her work even if she passes on.”

“People need to be conscious of what’s happening, although you won’t be an activist overnight, what you do with your pen and keyboard can make a difference,” says Muholi.

Muholi’s portraits evoke an array of emotions from different people all over the world as some believe her work is “multidimensional and captures many complex social issues that it could rightly be argued that she penetrates society with non-conventional gazes and truths.”

Born at Umlazi, Durban, Zanele Muholi has become a renowned photographer and activist with her documentation of the lives and experiences of black lesbian women in a way that challenges the history of the portrayal of black women’s bodies in documentary photography.

“Zanele’s work is about documenting, commemorating and celebrating black lesbians’ lives and she has done so beautifully on Faces and Phases”, said Mpako.

The Faces and Phases project is dedicated Muholi’s late mother and to all the black lesbian survivors and victims of hate crimes. For more information about the book visit: www.zanelemuholi.com.