Zanele Muholi: 2026 Hasselblad Award Laureate

©Zanele Muholi, Qiniso, The Sails, Durban, 2019

The Hasselblad Foundation is delighted to announce that Zanele Muholi is the 2026 Hasselblad Award laureate – the world’s largest pictures award, consisting of SEK 2,000,000, a gold medal, and a Hasselblad digital camera. The laureate is honoured with a solo exhibition on the Hasselblad Center from 10 October 2026 till 4 April 2027, together with a collection of occasions throughout Hasselblad Award Week in Gothenburg, together with a seminar in collaboration with the County Administrative Board of Västra Götaland; a live performance with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra; an exhibition opening; a guide launch; a proper award ceremony on 9 October and an artist discuss at Moderna Museet in Stockholm on 13 October.

©Zanele Muholi, Bester I, Mayotte, 2015

The Hasselblad Foundation’s quotation relating to the Hasselblad Award laureate 2026, Zanele Muholi:

Zanele Muholi stands as some of the influential up to date
photographers, with an impression that reaches far past the artwork world.
They use portraiture to articulate and have fun the presence, depth, and dignity of the Black LGBTQIA+ neighborhood in South Africa and the remainder of the world. Born in 1972 in the course of the apartheid regime, they’re extremely conscious of the facility of narration within the face of systematic violence. Muholi’s images are formally compelling, using composition, color, greyscale, and lighting to create an adept visible language that holds each power and vulnerability. The portraits foreground people with a direct and dignified gaze, difficult prejudice and discrimination whereas creating various visible histories. Activism and neighborhood work is an integral a part of their observe, which mixes political urgency and formal mastery, making Muholi a central determine in international queer visible tradition.

©Zanele Muholi, Ntozakhe II, Parktown, 2016

Zanele Muholi: ”This prize is just not mine alone. I carry it with the numerous faces, names, and histories which have trusted me with their tales. From Umlazi to each area the place Black LGBTQIA+ individuals proceed to struggle to exist freely, this recognition affirms that our lives are worthy of being seen – not as statistics, not as shadows, however as full human beings. For years, my work has been about visibility and resistance. It has been about creating an archive in order that nobody can say, ‘We did not know.’ When this honour comes, I obtain it on behalf of my neighborhood; those that have been erased, those that are nonetheless right here, and those that are but to see themselves mirrored with dignity.”

©Zanele Muholi, Bona Charlottesville, 2015

©Zanele Muholi, Julile I, Parktown, Johannesburg, 2016

About Zanele Muholi

Zanele Muholi has paved new floor of their use of pictures in visible activism, in the beginning in a relentless struggle for claiming visibility, dignity and respect for Black queer topics. Their observe is a fearless confrontation of the silencing and discrimination significantly of their native South-Africa. Their long-term portrait collection Faces and Phases (2006–), was conceived as an act of resistance towards systemic violence. The mission has entered its twentieth 12 months and is now thought of a seminal physique of labor in up to date pictures. Other works embrace the early Only half the Picture (2003-4) which documented lesbian lives and hate-crime survivors, and Brave Beauties (2014–) that honours trans girls. In the continued self-portrait collection Somnyama Ngonyama (Hail the Dark Lioness) (2018–) Muholi makes use of the visible languages of classical portraiture, trend, home labour, and ethnographic imagery, to problem stereo-types and historic illustration of Black our bodies in visible tradition. These daring self-portraits have redefined visible methods round identification and empowerment. 

As an integral a part of their inventive observe, Muholi is dedicated to collec-tive empowerment and knowledge-building. Inkanyiso was based 2009 as a discussion board devoted to queer and visible activist media, and The Muholi Art Institute (based 2022) goals to assist and develop rising artists throughout numerous disciplines. Muholi’s work is central to up to date de-bates on race, illustration, activism, and human rights. They have been foundational for a brand new technology of queer and Black photographers and encourage rising artists to work politically, ethically, and with neighborhood engagement.

Zanele Muholi (she/they) was born 1972 in Umlazi, Durban and at present lives and works between Johannesburg and Cape Town. They studied Advanced Photography on the Market Photo Workshop in Johannesburg and accomplished an MFA in Documentary Media at Ryerson University, Toronto, in 2009. Muholi’s work has been exhibited at main establishments worldwide, together with on the Venice Biennale, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris, Tate Modern, London, Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires and Serralves Museum in Porto. Previous solo exhibitions in Sweden embrace Fotografiska (2018) and Bildmuseet (2021). They have obtained quite a few awards such because the ICP Spotlights Award (2022), the Spectrum International Prize for Photography (2020), the Lucie Award for Humanitarian Photography (2019), and the Rees Visionary Award by Amref Health Africa (2019).Muholi is represented by Yancey Richardson Gallery in New York and Southern Guild Gallery in Cape Town and New York.

Instagram: @muholizanele

©Zanele Muholi, Kekeletso Khena Green Market Square Cape Town 2012

©Zanele Muholi, Lerato Dumse KwaThema Springs Johannesburg 2010

©Zanele Muholi, Lungile Cleo Dladla KwaThema Community Hall Springs Johannesburg 2011

©Zanele Muholi, Yaya Mavundla I , Parktown, Johannesburg, 2017

About the Hasselblad Foundation

The Hasselblad Foundation was established in 1979 in accordance with Erna and Victor Hasselblad’s will after they offered the Hasselblad digital camera firm. The objective of the muse is to advertise scientific training and analysis in pictures and the pure sciences. The annual, inter-national Hasselblad Award has been offered since 1980 and is the world’s largest award in pictures.

The basis holds a pictures assortment specializing in Hasselblad Award winners and Nordic photographers. The Hasselblad Center is the muse’s exhibition area, located within the Gothenburg Museum of Art. Stipends for photographic development are awarded yearly, and the muse itself is engaged within the area of educational and inventive analysis by way of the publication of books, symposiums, and collaborations with Swedish and worldwide universities.