Photographer Zanele Muholi started documenting the queer Black community in their native South Africa in 2006. Though the nation had just became the first country on the continent to legalize gay marriage, the Black LGBTQ community largely remained marginalized and hidden from view.

Muholi (who uses they/them pronouns) has continued that project for two decades, both in South Africa and England. Now, they’re expanding to the United States. Muholi is coming to New Orleans and will give the keynote address at PhotoNOLA, the annual photography festival, which takes place Dec. 10-14 at museums, art galleries and other spaces across New Orleans.

The connection between Muholi and New Orleans and PhotoNOLA is photographer Lori Waselchuk, who was one of the New Orleans Photo Alliance founders. She lived in Johannesburg for a decade, working as a photojournalist, art photographer and educator. She taught at South Africa’s renowned Market Photo Workshop, where Muholi studied in 2004.

“I saw their first photographs, and it was clear to me that Muholi was going to use the camera for incredible good,” Waselchuk says. “It was a lot like their ‘Faces and Phases’ project. They were looking at the Black LGBTQ community. It’s their community and one of (Muholi’s) main purposes is to make their stories visible. They’re also documenting hate crimes against members of the community.”

Muholi took portraits of Black queer, transgender and intersex people, as the community faced discrimination and abuse and dealt with Africa’s AIDS epidemic.

“They have a direct eye-to-eye observation,” Waselchuk says. “Not many people can be so direct and so poetic at the same time.”

As Muholi has continued the project, their work has been displayed in South Africa, London’s Tate Modern and the Brooklyn Museum, global art shows including the Venice Biennale and Documenta, and in the art photo journal Aperture.

Muholi is hoping to do some portraits while in New Orleans for PhotoNOLA. The keynote address is at 7:15 p.m. Thursday at Le Petit Theatre, preceding the PhotoNOLA Gala at Tableau.

PhotoNOLA’s core events include a photo portfolio review, the “Currents” show of work by New Orleans Photo Alliance members at Ogden Museum and the PhotoWALK Exhibition and bookfair, also at Ogden.

The closing event is the Jules L. Cahn John H. Lawrence lecture at The Historic New Orleans Collection. This year, the event is a celebration of New Orleans in the 1990s. Photographers Cheryl Gerber (a longtime Gambit contributor) and Gus Bennett will lead the panel, along with members of the HNOC digital collections staff. They’ll explore both archived work from The Times-Picayune and street photography.

There also will be a dozen booths of local photographers sharing their work. The event is 1-4 p.m. Sunday at the Williams Research Center and 420 Royal St. Admission is free, but registration is required.

During PhotoNOLA, more than 25 museums, galleries and alternative spaces present photography shows, and most are open through December or beyond. The New Orleans Photo Alliance, which runs PhotoNOLA, has a show about family relationships at its space at 7800 Oak St.

The New Orleans Museum of Art has a few shows. “Dawoud Bey: Elegy” features black-and-white landscape photos of places with troubled histories in Louisiana, Virginia and Ohio. Bey is a past PhotoNOLA keynote speaker. Other exhibits include American landscape photos by women photographers and a show of monochromatic works of water contrasted with black-and-white landscape images from the Mississippi River and its tributaries.

The Ogden Museum has “The Unending Stream: Chapter II,” which features six New Orleans photographers’ work on subjects ranging from the environment to Carnival traditions. Inspired by a photo from renowned Louisiana photographer Clarence John Laughlin, the show’s works attempt to define a particular place, time and sense of memory.

Other shows include photos of the Vietnamese diaspora throughout the Gulf Coast at Antenna Gallery. Farrington Smith Gallery shows artist duo Louviere + Vanessa’s surreal, photography-based multimedia works connecting the earthbound and the celestial. A Gallery for Fine Photography celebrates the release of Josephine Sacabo’s latest book “Tagged,” featuring work inspired by graffiti and questioning labels and pejoratives directed at women. Claire Elizabeth Gallery presents aerial photos by Ben Depp. Smith Gallery’s group show explores current social and political protests.

The festival also includes a couple of films. There’s a screening of the 2000 documentary “Benjamin Smoke” at The Broad Theater. Poet and musician Benjamin, who was born Robert Dickerson, led a band called Smoke and sometimes performed as drag star Opal Foxx.

Before he died of AIDS-linked illness, he wanted to perform with Patti Smith. With the help of R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe, that happened, and Smith later wrote a song inspired by the exchange, titled “Death Singing.” The film documents the final stages of Benjamin’s life and the musical connections. It screens at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 11.

North Carolina photographer Kennedi Carter won last year’s PhotoNOLA Portfolio Prize for her images of Black intimacy. She will give an artist talk along with Camille Lenain at Arthur Roger Gallery at 3:30 p.m. Friday. The gallery also presents a group show of local photographers.

Joshua Mann Pailet, an art photographer and owner of A Gallery for Fine Photography in the French Quarter, is the subject of “Chasing the Light: A Life Through Photographs.” The documentary screens 6:45 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 10. at NOMA and will be followed by a Q&A with Pailet and NOMA photography curator Brian Piper. Before the screening starts at 5:45 p.m., Piper will lead tours of the museum’s current photo exhibits, including Bey’s. The screening is the festival’s opening event.

For a full list of PhotoNOLA events and photography exhibitions, visit photonola.org.