OUTSPOKEN photographer Zanele Muholi has turned businessman Kenny Kunene's famous birthday party into a national debate.

Kunene made headlines two months ago when he hosted a R70,000 party at which guests ate sushi off the bodies of half-naked female models.

Muholi, who is known for speaking her mind through her lens, has just produced another controversial photograph to make a point about Kunene's party.

Titled I am Just Doing My Job, the photograph was displayed at the Michael Stevenson Gallery in Cape Town. In the photo a naked Muholi is covered with animal offal and two women are eating the meat.

"I became excited when I saw Kunene's party attracting publicity. I realised that social politics inspire art," Muholi said.

"In trying to explain the issue of class and inequality, I used tripe because rich people don't eat it. Only the less fortunate do."

Muholi, who works with photographer Robert Hamblin, stressed that the models at Kenny's party were just doing their job.

"Women have the right to do anything they want to with their bodies and nobody should dictate to them. Those models were paid for doing a job," she said.

Muholi said she was trying to say that anyone can eat anything they want on a woman's body.

"It does not have to be a man. Women need to take control of their bodies. This is a way of claiming ownership of my body as a woman," she said.

Muholi is no stranger to controversy. Her photos of lesbian couples caused a stir. Former arts and culture minister Lulu Xingwana regarded the photos as pornographic and walked out of the exhibition held on Constitution Hill in Johannesburg. Xingwana was harshly criticised by some people for walking out from an event that her department had sponsored and at which she was to have been a keynote speaker.