At the time of my first photographic portrait, in 2011, people wanted to "correct" me, but I still wanted to be out. I put the photo up in my room and thought, "this is a stepping stone to freedom." I finally saw a future.These are the words of Vuyelwa Makubetse, one of 250 black lesbian and transgender participants captured in Zanele Muholi’sFaces and Phases 10 exhibition, which marks 10 years since the award-winning photo-activist embarked on this important series.On opening night, the fifth-floor space of the Stevenson Gallery in Johannesburg throbbed with one of the most vibrant and expressively dressed crowds in the country — a testament to this juncture in SA’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex (LGBTI) visual history, which coincided with a celebration of 10 years since SA legalised same-sex marriage.As Muholi said in her speech, this was a "rare moment" for SA’s LGBTI community to come together and bask in the strides that have been made on this "long, hard journe...
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