WEBVTT 00:00:04.700 --> 00:00:07.600 [Zanele Muholi: Mobile Studios] 00:00:08.180 --> 00:00:11.140 [Daveyton, South Africa] 00:00:12.260 --> 00:00:14.020 [MUHOLI SPEAKING IN ZULU] Show me your eyes only. 00:00:17.640 --> 00:00:21.760 Breathe in and out. Everything is good now. 00:00:23.320 --> 00:00:25.780 You can do this. No, the fur coat is fine! 00:00:28.340 --> 00:00:31.120 I'm trying to form these mobile studios 00:00:31.120 --> 00:00:33.680 where you don't need to be fixated in one space. 00:00:34.520 --> 00:00:37.200 We live here, pay taxes. 00:00:37.200 --> 00:00:39.570 We are citizens of this country, 00:00:39.570 --> 00:00:41.780 which is democratic, they say. 00:00:42.500 --> 00:00:45.020 Any space is a possible space. 00:00:45.820 --> 00:00:50.680 It's my own way of writing South African LGBTI history. 00:00:50.680 --> 00:00:52.490 So I don't want to be limited by anything. 00:00:52.490 --> 00:00:55.140 I don't want to be in any studio. I want to be unplugged. 00:00:57.920 --> 00:00:59.860 That's Bathini, who is from Soweto, 00:00:59.860 --> 00:01:02.640 but connecting with Collen, who is in Daveyton. 00:01:02.640 --> 00:01:04.900 And we are assisted by Carla. 00:01:04.900 --> 00:01:07.380 And Lerato is the project coordinator. 00:01:08.300 --> 00:01:10.819 I try to make sure that I empower the people 00:01:10.819 --> 00:01:12.420 that are featuring in the series-- 00:01:12.420 --> 00:01:13.820 and people who are around me. 00:01:14.940 --> 00:01:16.940 These are "Faces and Phases" participants. 00:01:17.440 --> 00:01:19.580 Then there's Katiso with Ovulenda, 00:01:19.580 --> 00:01:22.080 who are in another series called "Brave Beauties." 00:01:23.540 --> 00:01:26.400 "Brave Beauties" looks specifically at trans women 00:01:26.400 --> 00:01:28.500 who are beauty queens. 00:01:29.580 --> 00:01:31.580 [MUHOLI SPEAKING IN ZULU] No, I'm with you. 00:01:31.580 --> 00:01:33.380 I want to make the best shot. 00:01:34.420 --> 00:01:37.820 When there are exhibitions, I take the participants with me, 00:01:37.829 --> 00:01:40.270 so they will be able to speak for themselves 00:01:40.270 --> 00:01:43.460 and get to see what happens to the photographs. 00:01:59.500 --> 00:02:02.320 How many of you have been to exhibitions? 00:02:03.200 --> 00:02:04.920 Have you been to exhibitions before? 00:02:04.920 --> 00:02:05.420 [PARTICIPANT] No. 00:02:05.820 --> 00:02:10.020 [MUHOLI] I needed to give those humans a space to express, 00:02:10.030 --> 00:02:12.760 which is not what they usually do on a daily basis. 00:02:12.760 --> 00:02:15.530 [PARTICIPANT] Being shown on the exhibition, 00:02:15.530 --> 00:02:21.040 is a sign of showing people that we exist 00:02:21.040 --> 00:02:22.140 and we are human. 00:02:23.420 --> 00:02:25.880 [MUHOLI] Creating the "activist wall," 00:02:25.880 --> 00:02:30.360 it's a way in which we destabilize the peaceful imagery 00:02:31.120 --> 00:02:32.960 of the gallery setting. 00:02:33.520 --> 00:02:35.480 [PARTICIPANT, IN ZULU] I want to speak for myself, 00:02:35.480 --> 00:02:38.420 be strong, and be the person that I truly am. 00:02:38.420 --> 00:02:40.140 ["Trans is beauty'] ["Trans is strength"] 00:02:40.140 --> 00:02:43.880 [MUHOLI] Especially gallery settings-- its white walls, beautiful images. 00:02:43.880 --> 00:02:45.920 It seems as if there's no agency. 00:02:47.400 --> 00:02:50.140 Yes, they are these beautiful young individuals 00:02:50.150 --> 00:02:51.150 who are on the walls, 00:02:51.150 --> 00:02:53.840 but they have their own personal stories to tell. 00:02:57.900 --> 00:03:01.500 Surely, the "Brave Beauties" are the only visual document 00:03:01.500 --> 00:03:04.240 that has ever existed that has reached that far. 00:03:05.280 --> 00:03:08.300 [PARTICIPANT] You can zoom in if you want to, I don't have pimples! 00:03:10.860 --> 00:03:14.180 [MUHOLI] So, I just wanted to give a voice to trans women-- 00:03:15.620 --> 00:03:19.100 to be heard and be seen in art spaces. 00:03:20.640 --> 00:03:22.440 I needed to make sure that 00:03:22.440 --> 00:03:25.560 people see themselves as worthy humans, 00:03:25.560 --> 00:03:30.470 just like every other important woman in South African history 00:03:30.470 --> 00:03:33.000 or beyond South African borders.