Art & culture
Zanele Muholi’s Faces and Phases portrait archive
A long-running portrait series records Black LGBTQIA+ lives and resists the erasure of its subjects.
Zanele Muholi describes themself as a visual activist, and Faces and Phases brings portraiture into conversation with visibility, community and historical record. The project is contemporary art and social documentation; its relevance to photobooth culture is the question of who gets to make and preserve a public image.
A continuing series
Institutional accounts describe Faces and Phases as a multi-year project begun in 2006, made through portraits of Black lesbian, transgender and queer communities in South Africa and beyond. The repeated format gives each sitter space as an individual while also building a collective record across locations and time.
Evidence: Wikipedia article · Museum / collection / artist record
Portraiture and self-representation
The project challenges images and narratives that reduce people to stereotypes or omit them entirely. Muholi’s attentive collaboration with sitters makes consent, naming and visibility central to the work. A portrait series can create community history while still respecting that each image represents a particular person, not a generic category.
Evidence: Museum / collection / artist record · Wikipedia article
A responsible way to view
Treat captions, names and the artist’s stated context as part of the work. Avoid inferring personal details from appearance or treating subjects as anonymous examples. This differs from an automated booth, where a user often controls the image privately; Muholi’s project is a considered public archive made with participants and a larger historical purpose.
Evidence: Museum / collection / artist record
Sources & further reading
Sources for the specific facts and product descriptions above. Our worked examples, interpretations and practical suggestions are original editorial guidance.
- Wikipedia: Zanele MuholiWikipedia article
- Hist Tate MuholiMuseum / collection / artist record