Zanele Muholi

Zanele Muholi (born 19 July 1972) is a South African artist and visual activist working in photography, video, and installation. Muholi's work focuses on race, gender and sexuality with a body of work that dates back to the early 2000s, documenting and celebrating the lives of South Africa's Black lesbian, gay, transgender, and intersex communities. Muholi is non-binary and uses they/them pronouns, explaining that "I'm just human".Muholi was shortlisted for the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize in 2015. They received an Infinity Award from the International Center of Photography in 2016, a Chevalier de Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2016, and an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society in 2018.

Muholi had a restrospective exhibition on at Maison européenne de la photographie in Paris from 1st February to 25th May, 2023. Their work was also shown that year at Mudec-Museo delle Culture in Milan, from 31st March through 30th July, 2023, showcasing 60 self-portraits in black and white chosen especially for Mudec. Zanele Muholi was born and raised in Umlazi, Durban, KwaZulu-Natal. Their father was Ashwell Tanji Banda Muholi and their mother was Bester Muholi. They are the youngest of eight children. Muholi's father died shortly after their birth, and their mother was a domestic worker who had to leave her children to work for a white family during Apartheid in South Africa. Muholi was raised by an extended family.Muholi has described themselves as a visual activist as opposed to an artist. They are dedicated to increasing the visibility of black lesbian, gay, transgender, and intersex people. They researched and documented the stories of hate crimes against the LGBTQI community in order to bring forth the realities of "corrective rape," assault, and HIV/AIDS, to public attention.

They hold a Master of Fine Arts degree in Documentary Media from Ryerson University in Toronto and were appointed Honorary Professor – video and photography at the University of the Arts Bremen in Germany.In 2014, they presented at the Design Indaba Conference in Cape Town.Muholi was a speaker at WorldPride Madrid Summit 2017. They co-chaired the Madrid Summit Declaration with Federico Mayor Zaragoza, Myrna Cunningham and Gopi Shankar Madurai.