Launched to coincide with South Africa's Pride celebrations next month, a new online exhibition by Johannesburg-based photographer Nonzuzo Gxekwa will shine a light on the city's LGBTQ+ community with seven empowering portraits of its members.
Hosted by Artsy in collaboration with Foreign Agent and the Photographic Collective, the exhibition builds on the internationally acclaimed work of Zanele Muholi in bringing South Africa's marginalised and under-threat communities into focus. Taken between 2014 and 2019, Gxekwa's photographs, like Muholi's, are a direct response to the chequered history of LGBTQ+ communities in South Africa. Despite becoming the first African country to legalise same-sex marriage, hate crimes against the LGBTQ+ community have steadily risen in recent years. The trauma that is so unforgettably recorded in Muholi's Faces + Phases seriesbecame an important source of strength for Gxekwa, whose series Ses'fikile sesikhona! (meaning, we are here, we've arrived!) is as much an expression of the present as a record for the future. Read the full article here