thegang:

I am extremely excited to present a GAQ feature interview and photo spread with incredible photographer and artist, Sophia Wallace. Wallace merges narrative, documentary, fashion, and performance strategies to create dialogue around notions of gender and identity.  And it’s beautiful work. Perhaps the most striking thing about Wallace’s work for me is her ability to create imagery as crisp and fashion-forward as those in your latest issue of Vogue, while simultaneously offering cultural commentary and bringing thought provoking themes to the fore.  

I asked Wallace some questions about her work, her process and the ideas behind it all. Click the photo for the entire spread, or click HERE to download. 

tobia:

Paul Mpagi Sepuya.

kameelahwrites:

J-Train.

© Kameelah Janan Rasheed

Untitled, Madison from series B-Boys Will Be Boys
2007
DeAndré Harris | BASS X MOVEMENT

Untitled by Eduardo

joe m.
bloomington, in.
april, 2011.

Closer to my heart I - V (2005) | Only half the picture
Zanele Muholi 

Lambda print
600 x 800mm
edition of 8 + 2AP

Luwam I-IV, Toronto (2008) | Indawo Yami Exhibit 
Zanele Muholi

Silver Gelatin Print
Edition of 8 + 2AP

Indawo Yami, which means ‘my place’ or ‘my space’, continues to explore the implications of being black and queer through a range of different series and strategies. Being, a continuation of ongoing work, focuses on a quiet and tender celebration of love within the homosexual community, whether between mothers and sons, between lovers or between friends. In Beulahs Muholi uses Zulu beads and contemporary fashion accessories in presenting portraits of gay men that subvert common images of virginal beauty. In three new series she adds a performative element by casting herself in different roles, such as that of the beauty queen in Miss Lesbian. Muholi writes:

Indawo Yami is where I work, where I share an environment with others, where I act on the issues marking our lives through visual documentation. My focus is mainly on being queer (LGBTI) in South Africa and beyond. This is the realm in which I deal with my identity, as a citizen of my country and of the world.

Odidiva II
District 6, Cape Town, Jan. 2010
Zanele Muholi

Image size: 76.5 x 50.5cm
Paper size: 86.5 x 60.5cm
Silver Gelatin Print
Edition of 8 + 2AP