A striking black-and-white portrait of an African woman adorned with a glittering headpiece, emphasizing cultural elegance and artistic expression.
Zanele Muholi, the groundbreaking South African visual activist, has added another landmark achievement to their storied career: the prestigious Hasselblad Award, the world’s largest photography prize. For over two decades, Muholi has used their camera to center Black lesbian and trans lives, creating a vital archive that challenges injustice while celebrating identity and community. Muholi’s journey began in Umlazi near Durban, where they developed a practice rooted in documenting both love and the harsh realities of homophobia and violence. Their work, from the intimate “Faces and Phases” portraits to the transformative “Somnyama Ngonyama” self-portraits, fundamentally reshapes how Black LGBTIQ+ experiences are perceived. Accepting the honor, Muholi dedicated it to their community, insisting their lives be recognized not as statistics but as full human beings.
The Conversation