Pride Portraits

Pride Portraits is a series by Cape Town photographer Tamara Wilson that explores the wntersection of queerness and religion.

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Through intimate portraits, the project highlights how queer individuals express their spirituality despite often facing exclusion within religious spaces. Wilson’s work aims to challenge conventional norms and amplify voices that are frequently marginalised in faith communities. The series seeks to promote a broader cultural shift towards acceptance and inclusion of all identities within religion.

Wilson is a queer visual activist photographer, who draws upon her identity as a queer white woman living in post-apartheid South Africa — as well as her Jewish heritage and religion — to create introspective and socially conscious artwork. Her work explores themes of identity, the complexities of belonging in contemporary society, while interrogating systems of power and oppression.

Thuli Mbete

“Being a Gobela (a person who trains sangoma initiates) calls on one to raise, nurture and cultivate those entrusted to me by their ancestors. I am blessed to have a home that is glittered with those who are part of my (LQBTIQA+) community, and support from my own mother who has been my pillar of strength along this journey.

“May these portraits of me remind the audience that family is not limited to biological kin, but your chosen family will always find you.”

Sharon Cox and Carol Lennon

Sharon: “Like the majority of people in this country, I grew up in religion. It was always a part of my life; a part that I valued deeply.

“I eventually would turn my back on organised religion, after becoming a critical thinker - as opposed to a passive consumer of religion.