ABSTRACT
I saw Zanele Muholi‘s image Aftermath (2004) for the fi rst time when I was visiting the Month of Photography exhibition called Is Everybody Comfortable? at the Castle of Good Hope in Cape Town in 2005. Muholi’s Aftermath had an outstanding effect on me (and other viewers), generating various, contradictory emotions. Aftermath shows the body of a black woman from just above the belly-button down to her knees. The woman is only wearing underpants bearing the label ‘Jockey,’ which can be read as a signifi er of lesbian identity. Her hands, at the center of the picture, are clasped over her genitals. There are different possible readings of the image but Muholi guides the viewer by including a caption which states the following: “(m)any lesbians bear the scars of their difference, and those scars are often in places where they can’t be seen.” Just underneath the hands on the right thigh a big, long scar makes this violation of the body visible. The scar almost covers the entire thigh and it takes the viewer’s attention away from the center of the picture, the hands covering the genitals. The eyes, however, return to the hands immediately once the viewer realizes that the scar is already healed, thus illustrating Muholi’s comment on scars of difference that often “can’t be seen.” It is in that moment that the gesture of the hands becomes central. The gesture does not imply shyness, possibly due to the women’s nakedness in front of the camera. Instead the gesture functions as a form of protection where the hands also express a certain fragility and vulnerability. So while the scar on the thigh is already healed the gesture of the hands implies a more recent violation of the body. And it is this reference to the violated lesbian body that uncompromisingly creates a sense of accusation, of vulnerability, agency, intimacy, discomfort, pain and anger, all at the same time.
