Visual artist and activist Zanele Muholi won the Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression art award in London on March, 21, 2013. Shortlisted alongside her were Russian punk group Pussy Riot, Saudi-Arabian filmmaker Haifaa Al Mansour, and Indian cartoonist Aseem Trivedi.

She completed an advanced photography course at the Market Photo Workshop in Newtown, Johannesburg in 2003, and held her first solo exhibition at the Johannesburg Art Gallery in 2004. In 2009 she was awarded her Master of Fine Arts degree in Documentary Media from Ryerson University in Toronto. Her thesis mapped the visual history of black lesbian identity and politics in post-Apartheid South Africa. Her work represents the black female body in a frank yet intimate way that challenges the history of the portrayal of black women's bodies in documentary photography.

Muholi was a founder of the Forum for the Empowerment of Women (FEW), a black lesbian organisation based in Gauteng.