#1 | Zanele Muholi | Somnyama Ngonyama - ZAM

Zanele Muholi 01

crm@zammagazine.com (Somnyama Ngonya) — Fri, 01 Jul 2016 11:02:25 +0200

Zanele Muholi quote

crm@zammagazine.com (ZAM) — Fri, 01 Jul 2016 11:09:02 +0200

“When I was young, I was told that I was ugly, and I had to grow up with a sense of ugliness and shame. And I had to overcome it, because nobody can love you more than you”

Zanele Muholi 02

crm@zammagazine.com (Christina Månsson) — Fri, 01 Jul 2016 11:06:25 +0200

Zanele Muholi 03

crm@zammagazine.com (Christina Månsson) — Fri, 01 Jul 2016 11:07:13 +0200

Somnyama Ngonyama means ‘Hail, the Dark Lioness’. After having portrayed black queer and transgender women and men for years (which is ongoing), Muholi turns the camera towards herself to add a new chapter to her ‘visual activism’. With this she confronts the politics of race and pigment in the photographic archive. The result is both confusing and powerful. In her own words: ‘Experimenting with different characters and archetypes, I have portrayed myself in highly stylised fashion using the performative and expressive language of theatre. The black face and its details become the focal point, forcing the viewers to question their desire to gaze at images of my black figure. By exaggerating the darkness of my skin tone, I'm reclaiming my blackness, which I feel is continuously performed by the privileged other.’

Zanele Muholi 04

crm@zammagazine.com (Christina Månsson) — Fri, 01 Jul 2016 11:10:27 +0200

Zanele Muholi 05

crm@zammagazine.com (Christina Månsson) — Fri, 01 Jul 2016 11:15:07 +0200

Zanele Muholi 06

crm@zammagazine.com (Christina Månsson) — Fri, 01 Jul 2016 11:16:06 +0200

Zanele Muholi 07

crm@zammagazine.com (Christina Månsson) — Fri, 01 Jul 2016 11:16:50 +0200

Zanele Muholi 08

crm@zammagazine.com (Christina Månsson) — Fri, 01 Jul 2016 11:17:47 +0200

Zanele Muholi 09

crm@zammagazine.com (Christina Månsson) — Fri, 01 Jul 2016 11:18:33 +0200

Credits

crm@zammagazine.com (ZAM) — Fri, 01 Jul 2016 11:03:53 +0200

Photography: From the series 'Somnyama Ngonyama.' © Zanele Muholi. Courtesy of Stevenson, Cape Town/Johannesburg and Yancey Richardson, New York
Artist website: www.stevenson.info
Text: Nicole Segers & Bart Luirink with thanks to Stevenson, Cape Town
Quote: The New York Times Magazine, Oct. 8 2015
Editor: Christina Månsson for ZAM
Curator: Nicole Segers for ZAM, June 2016. Read her motivation here.

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