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.
Additional text from Seeing Through Photographs online course, Coursera, 2016