Looking at New Generations of African Photographers

On a continent where same-sex relations are illegal in most countries, and where being gay is punishable by death in some states, homosexuality is widely considered “un-African.”

While powerful work on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues in Africa has been done by documentary photographers like Robin Hammond of New Zealand, with his project “Where Love Is Illegal,” the approach of liberal Western media can reinforce the notion that homosexuality in Africa is a “perversion” of traditional African values introduced by foreigners, or a colonial legacy that imposed European religious conservatism and rails against such relations as “unnatural.”

But work such as the Ghanaian artist Eric Gyamfi’s “Just Like Us” project, and that of Zanele Muholi, a South African activist who explores the experiences of black lesbians in her country, shows how homosexuality is an inherent part of African society, and history, said John Fleetwood, the former head of Johannesburg’s Market Photo Workshop and the director of Photo, a new African initiative.