Zanele Muholi

Two series explain why Muholi matters. Faces and Phases is a growing counter-archive of Black queer and trans lives in South Africa, portraits made so those lives are recorded on their own terms. Somnyama Ngonyama (Hail the Dark Lioness) turns the camera around: Muholi moves from photographer to subject in striking self-portraits about agency and representation. The work's reach is now official. Muholi received the 2026 Hasselblad Award, presented in Gothenburg on October 9, 2026, and the award exhibition at the Hasselblad Center runs until April 4, 2027. Go for the scale of the self-portraits, which hit much harder on a wall than on a screen.