5. Changing Visual Politics in South Africa: Old and New Modes of Exclusion, Protest and Offence

This Chapter considers the subversive potential of ‘offensive’ images in the cultural and political context of South Africa. It explores to what extent visual representations of white and black bodies have changed after the official end of apartheid in 1992. Whereas some photographers have long tried to move people with their photographs of suffering black bodies, this chapter argues that nowadays artist use different techniques to move their audiences and instigate political change. Through the artwork of Zanele Muholi and Dean Hutton, two queer artists in South Africa, the text asks how their ‘offensive’ image creations work here as a mode of protest, empowerment and provocation that is significantly different from during the struggle.