Gelatin silver print
Not on view
Zanele Muholi’s Faces and Phases is an ongoing project begun in 2006 that merges art and activism. Muholi’s growing portfolio portrays members of the black South African Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Intersex (LGBTI) community, which has been violently discriminated against and dehumanized. Muholi writes: “In Faces and Phases I present our existence and resistance through positive imagery of black queers (especially lesbians) in South African society and beyond. I show our aesthetics through portraiture.” Formally, Muholi’s black-and-white portraits capture what she calls the “face-to-face confrontation” with her subjects during the photo sessions.
Seeing Through Photographs online course, Coursera, 2016
Explore more
Zanele Muholi
South African, born 1972 6 works onlineA self-described “visual activist,” Zanele Muholi uses photography to combat and resolve the issue of Black queer invisibility in society.
Learn more →
Portrait
A representation of a particular individual, usually intended to capture their likeness or personality.
Learn more →
Audio
Audio from the playlist Collection 1980s–Present
From MoMA Design Store
Licensing
Artwork or archival images
If you would like to reproduce an image of a work of art in MoMA's collection, or an image of a MoMA publication or archival material (including installation views, checklists, and press releases), please contact Art Resource (publication in North America) or Scala Archives (publication in all other geographic locations).
Audio and film clips
MoMA licenses archival audio and select out of copyright film clips from our film collection. At this time, MoMA produced video cannot be licensed by MoMA/Scala. All requests to license archival audio or out of copyright film clips should be addressed to Scala Archives at [email protected]. Motion picture film stills cannot be licensed by MoMA/Scala. For access to motion picture film stills for research purposes, please contact the Film Study Center at [email protected]. For more information about film loans and our Circulating Film and Video Library, please visit Circulating Film and Video Library.
Text from a publication or the archives
If you would like to reproduce text from a MoMA publication, please email [email protected]. If you would like to publish text from MoMA's archival materials, please fill out this permission form and send to [email protected].
Feedback
This record is a work in progress. If you have additional information or spotted an error, please fill out this feedback form.