Zanele Muholi’s visual advocacy has actually produced a few of the most unique and remarkable creative contributions to modern South African culture. Their capability to foreground traditionally marginalised individuals in the LGBTQIA+ neighborhood has actually constantly stimulated lasting psychological connections.
Muholi’s plain usage of black-and-white images is constantly attractive and mystifying– drawing observers into the worlds included in the frame. With a profession this identified, numerous an author (me consisted of) has actually lacked superlatives to encapsulate their effect, worth and artistry.
Where scribes run out of words, the world never ever appears to be except methods to acknowledge, honour and commemorate a creative powerhouse such as Muholi.
The current is their acknowledgment as the 2026 Hasselblad Award laureate. It is extensively thought about among the world’s most substantial photography awards, and Muholi is the 46th recipient. Officially provided in Gothenburg, Sweden, on 9 October 2026, the award features a gold medal, a Hasselblad electronic camera and 2 million Swedish kronor (about R3.3-million). It is likewise accompanied by a significant solo exhibit entitled Zanele Muholi: Hasselblad Award 2026, which will run up until 4 April next year.
“When this honour comes, I get it on behalf of my neighborhood,” Muholi stated. Their work has actually constantly looked beyond the self, even when they have actually been the topic of it.
‘Seminal work’
The exhibit draws from 6 of Muholi’s bodies of work, consisting of Just Half the Picture Faces and Phases and Somnyama NgonyamaEach checks out the presence, self-respect and charm of black queer, lesbian and trans lives.
These 3 series exemplify Muholi’s development as an artist and an archivist. Faces and Phases is the most popular of the 3 due to the fact that of its objective as a counter-archive. Muholi has actually formerly explained it as extending beyond portraiture to end up being a method to record black queer and trans resistance and presence. Hasselblad has actually called it a critical body of modern photographic work.
Just Half the Picture is most considerable for its unquestionable links in between visual advocacy and recording violence. Premiered in 2002, it shows how Muholi’s art has actually long been rooted in statement and the paperwork of lived experience.
In Somnyama Ngonyama (Hail the Dark Lioness), Muholi moves from being the photographer to being the subject. This is, for me at least, the body of work most synonymous with the visual activist, in large part owing to the striking use of heightened skin tone and contrast. In this series, the question of representation of blackness and who holds agency over its representation is a noteworthy expansion from merely “who gets to be photographed?”
Narrative control
Visibility, representation, archival importance and autonomy are key tenets of Muholi’s work throughout the years. These foundations have set their visual activism apart and brought a greater degree of narrative control over black queer and African representation to its rightful custodians – the people who live these realities.
Hasselblad’s recognition of Muholi’s visual activism is an institutional acknowledgement of both the work and the authority of those who tell these stories.
“This prize is not mine alone,” Muholi declares. “I carry it with the many faces, names and histories that have trusted me with their stories.” It is a significant responsibility – one that Muholi has carried consistently throughout their practice. Not in place of the community, but in service to it. DM
This story first appeared in our weekly DM168 newspaper, available countrywide for R39. The e-edition of Daily Maverick’s weekly newspaper, DM168, is now free for readers who are signed into their Daily Maverick account. Click here to access the latest e-edition.
In Somnyama Ngonyama (Hail the Dark Lioness), Muholi moves from being the photographer to being the subject. This is, for me at least, the body of work most synonymous with the visual activist, in large part owing to the striking use of heightened skin tone and contrast. In this series, the question of representation of blackness and who holds agency over its representation is a noteworthy expansion from merely “who gets to be photographed?”
Narrative control
Visibility, representation, archival importance and autonomy are key tenets of Muholi’s work throughout the years. These foundations have set their visual activism apart and brought a greater degree of narrative control over black queer and African representation to its rightful custodians – the people who live these realities.
Hasselblad’s recognition of Muholi’s visual activism is an institutional acknowledgement of both the work and the authority of those who tell these stories.
“This prize is not mine alone,” Muholi declares. “I carry it with the many faces, names and histories that have trusted me with their stories.” It is a significant responsibility – one that Muholi has carried consistently throughout their practice. Not in place of the community, but in service to it. DM
This story first appeared in our weekly DM168 newspaper, available countrywide for R39. The e-edition of Daily Maverick’s weekly newspaper, DM168, is now free for readers who are signed into their Daily Maverick account. Click here to access the latest e-edition.
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