Different, But Same
The project will be named “Different, but Same” which will focus on the minority groups in society, such as sexual minorities, ethnic minorities, people with disabilities, etc. Because of their “special” identity, they will experience more social injustices during their growth and working life as adults. For example, some people with disabilities may be questioned about their ability to do their jobs when they apply for a job. When ethnic minority students apply to some colleges, they need higher SAT/ACT scores to be admitted; LGBTQIA+ people are still considered mentally ill in some countries or regions. I would like to state my opinion on the so-called “mainstream society” and “non-mainstream society” through this series of works, that is everyone is an individual worthy of respect. No one should judge others whether the person is normal or not, or behavior is right or wrong by using the concept from the so-called mainstream society. Everyone has the right to embrace the good life, instead of living in a moral abduction under the haze.
I will use studio portrait photography and text interpretation as the medium for the series. And there are going to have 6-8 photos in this project. Before taking the photos, I will interview the interviewees with some questions, such as how they live normally in the face of prejudice, how they feel about it, and their prospects for the future, etc. Then, I’ll take portraits in the studio. I will draw on the skin of interviewees by using cosmetic techniques with dyes that can be applied to the skin to highlight their self-identity.
References
The Politics of Trans Representation in the Photography of Lia Clay Miller
By Josephine Battle
For Photographer Lia Clay Miller, Representation is All About Intimacy
Gender Alchemy’ Is Transforming Art for the 21st Century
Zanele Muholi’s “Eva Mofokeng I, Parktown, Johannesburg” (2014) is from “Brave Beauties,” a photographic series focusing on Black trans women.Credit…Zanele Muholi; via Yancey Richardson, New York and Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town and Johannesburg
Best known for photographing members of the L.G.B.T.Q.I. communities in South Africa over the last two decades, Zanele Muholi prefers to be called a “visual activist,” instead of “visual artist.” That activism often takes the form of education: running art workshops in Umbumbulu, which during the pandemic became an ad hoc school for children stuck at home.
For Muholi, who identifies as nonbinary, “feminism is not a theory but something I practice.” And taking photographs is a way of insisting on L.G.B.T.Q.I. rights in a country that doesn’t do enough to protect them. “This is a time and place where I’ve had to attend funerals almost every month, as people have been subject to hate crimes and brutalized and killed,” Muholi said. “It means everything I do is deeply personal.” (They also make self-portraits, which during the pandemic took the form of paintings as well as photographs.)
For the series “Brave Beauties,” begun in 2014 and featured recently in a solo show at the Tate Modern, Muholi focused the lens on 19 Black trans women in Cape Town, Johannesburg and other cities, many of whom compete in local gay beauty pageants.
“Most are survivors of different forms of violence, either abuse from the homes where they were born or hate crimes and beatings on the street,” Muholi said. “Some have been expelled from schools.”
Instead of focusing on the pain, Muholi creates a space — often at home — for the women to relax, feel beautiful and express themselves, scars and all. The three photographs from “Brave Beauties” in “New Time” at BAMPFA are black-and-white, lending them a historical weight. In one, “Eva Mofokeng I, Parktown, Johannesburg,” a transgender model assumes a classic screen-siren pose blowing a kiss.
Muholi has also photographed the women enjoying a day at the public beach, accompanied by a relative who is a police officer. “For too long we’ve been displaced — as Black people, as queer people, as trans people,” Muholi said. “But we don’t always need to protest. Sometimes we just need to have fun and be free.”
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