South Africa, Chromatic Existences: Zanele Muholi & Pieter Hugo

  • France
  • 2014
  • en
  • en
  • 14'

In South Africa, crimes against lesbians are rife. Photographer Zanele Muholi pointed her camera at them, as well as black transsexual s, and turned it into a lifetime project to showcase their existence. Pieter Hugo, when his first child was born, wondered what it meant to live in South Africa. How do black history and white history co-exist today? What is the aftermath of apartheid?

South Africa, Chromatic Existences: Zanele Muholi & Pieter Hugo
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Synopsis

In South Africa, crimes against lesbians are rife. Photographer Zanele Muholi pointed her camera at them, as well as black transsexual s, and turned it into a lifetime project to showcase their existence. Pieter Hugo, when his first child was born, wondered what it meant to live in South Africa. How do black history and white history co-exist today? What is the aftermath of apartheid?

What you will find in this film

A visual activist • A black photographer who was able to impose her art • Portraits of the invisible in South African society • The photographer guiding her model • A dignified look at identity • Photography as a political act • The need for images as models • A modern look at post-apartheid society • Looking to be seen • The contemporary shadow of the racial question • Photographing to talk about society as it is • Photographing as a political act

I document black lesbians and black trans people. It's just a way in which I'm stressing people's existence and how they could take back power and confront you.
My relationship with photography is closer to sculpture than it is to painting. I like the grit, the texture of reality.

Film chapters

summary00:00 Look at me - Zanele Muholi

summary03:26 Building a visual identity

summary07:43 Kin

summary09:52 White and African?

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Bibliography

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SOMNYAMA NGONYAMA, SALUT A TOI, LIONNE NOIRE ! - artist: Zanele Muholi ; 2021 ; Delpire & co ; French

• ZANELE MUHOLI - with Sarah Allen ; 2020 ; Tate Gallery 

ZANELE MUHOLI : FACES AND PHASES 2006-2014 - 2014 ; Steidl Verlag 

• ZANELE MUHOLI : ONLY HALF THE PICTURE - 2006 ; STE Publishers 

• ZANELE MUHOLI - 1999 ; La Fabrica 

• PIETER HUGO : 1994 - 2017 ; Prestel 

FLAT NOODLE SOUP TALK - artist: Pieter Hugo ; 2016 ; Editions Bessard 

• KIN - artist: Pieter Hugo ; 2015 ; Aperture

• PIETER HUGO : THIS MUST BE THE PLACE - 2012 ; Prestel 

• PERMANENT ERROR - artist: Pieter Hugo ; 2011 ; Prestel 

• NOLLYWOOD - artist: Pieter Hugo ; 2009 ; Prestel 

• PIETER HUGO : BETWEEN THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA - directed by Ralf Beil and Uta Ruhkamp ; 1999 ; Prestel 

• THE HYENA AND OTHER MEN - artist: Pieter Hugo ; 1999 ; Prestel