This past Sunday was both an auspicious and sobering time to visit the Brooklyn Museum’s exhibition Zanele Muholi: Isibonelo/Evidence. The euphoria of Friday’s United States Supreme Court decision confirming same-sex marriage as a civil right was still fresh, a seeming reassurance that the arc of history does in fact bend towards justice. In the midst of this celebratory atmosphere, Isibonelo/Evidence was jarring, demonstrating the brutal separation between political liberty and the realities of personal life.
Zanele Muholi, Collen Mfazwe, August House, Johannesburg, 2012. Silver gelatin photograph, 86.5 x 60.5 cm
