Zanele Muholi has been in news recently, not so much for her work, but for how others see her work. When her nude photographs were featured as part of the Innovative Women Exhibition at Constitution Hill, no one raised an eyebrow.

Zanele won the Casa Africa award for best female photographer and a Fondation Blachère award at Les Rencontres de Bamako biennial of African photography in 2009. At the Genders & Sexualities in Africa Conference held in Syracuse, New York, she also received a Fanny Ann Eddy accolade from IRN-Africa for her outstanding contributions in the study of sexuality in Africa. So when South Africa’s minister of Arts and Culture, Lulu Xingwana, labelled her photographs as “pornographic” and left without opening the exhibition, artists around the country screamed outrage.

Later comments to emerge from the minister were, “It was immoral, offensive and going against nation-building.” Newspapers are still publishing open letters to the minister from artists, poets and speakers on behalf of gender equality.

Her upcoming solo exhibition will take place at Michael Stevenson from 22 April–29 May 2010.