We congratulate Thami Mnyele Foundation fellow Zanele Muholi for participating in BLACK VENUS, an exhibition that surveys the legacy of Black women in visual culture – from fetishized, colonial-era caricatures, to the present-day reclamation of the rich complexity of Black womanhood by 19 artists (of numerous nationalities and with birth years spanning 1942 to 1997).

This exhibition is a celebration of Black beauty, an investigation into the many faces of Black femininity and the shaping of Black women in the public conscious – then and now. It is curated by Aindrea Emelife at Fotografiska New York.

This specific photograph work was taken at the Thami Mnyele Foundation during the residency of Zanele Muholi.

Photo caption: ©Zanele Muholi, courtesy of Yancey Richardson, New York, and Stevenson, Capetown and Johannesburg - 'Miss Lesbian I, Amsterdam, from the series Miss (Black) Lesbian' (2009)