Discover Miss D’Vine II, 2007, by Zanele Muholi
In Zanele Muholi’s hands, the camera is a powerful tool for resistance and change. Whether turning their lens on their own body or the LGBTQI+ community in their native South Africa, the artist calls out the violence wreaked upon queer people, while celebrating their strength and beauty. In Miss D’Vine II, 2007, a lone figure appears against litter strewn scrubland, standing proud in a pair of red stilettos and a black dress, yet with an acute vulnerability reflected in their expression. Like many of the self-described visual activist’s works, it explores the experiences of being LGBTQI+ in post-apartheid South Africa. Muholi sees their subjects as collaborators in the image-making, even helping to choose their clothing and the location of the shoot.
Miss D’Vine II is part of Zanele Muholi: Eye Me, the artist’s solo exhibition at SFMOMA (on view until 11 August 2024), which collates over 100 of the artist’s photographs from 2002 to the present, alongside paintings, sculpture and video.
