Faces and Phases, the groundbreaking portrait collection to deal with the discrimination and systematic violence going through Black LGBTQIA+ people in South Africa, is marking its 20th anniversary this yr. The photographic and narrative undertaking was created by South African photographer Zanele Muholi to deal with the (beneath)illustration of members of the communities in mainstream visible tradition and to assist change unfavorable narratives about queer individuals on the continent. The physique of labor options tons of of highly effective black-and-white portraits.
‘I need individuals to know that we’re right here, we had been right here earlier than and we are going to at all times be right here with out worry of exclusion or being excluded, with out worry of being aspect lined, with out worry of being undermined as a result of any one who says I’m and comes forth implies that they’re doing that on behalf of many others who’re silenced by speedy areas from their church buildings to colleges to workplaces,’ says Muholi to Wallpaper* in regards to the beginnings of manufacturing what’s now ‘a very powerful Black visible archive’ specializing in Black lesbian, trans and queer communities, having seen how they’re depicted in mainstream media.
Portrait of Zanele Muholi
(Image credit score: Ikram Abdulkadir)
The people featured in Faces and Phases are ‘individuals who’re partaking in a very powerful examine of our lifetime,’ because the self-described visible activist places it. They are all 18 or older and are overtly themselves. It is a deliberate resolution by the artist to make sure that ‘I current my individuals in essentially the most constructive, healthiest, and dignified method to teach many others inside the continent and the African continent to say that hear us, respect us, and recognise us as a result of our existence saves lives.’
That’s the sort of follow that Muholi is famend for each regionally and internationally: bringing visibility to Black lesbian, trans, and queers communities, and addressing prejudice, discrimination, stereotypes and violence geared toward members of those communities. The artist has been educating images for over 20 years, extending that to incorporate uplifting initiatives that present images classes to younger individuals and Black girls in townships and rural areas in South Africa, as a manner ‘for them to jot down their very own tales.’
Bona, Charlottesville, 2015 – 9781
(Image credit score: © Zanele Muholi. Courtesy Yancey Richardson, New York and Southern Guild, Cape Town)
The Muholi Art Institute companions with visible artwork academics in South Africa and sponsors college students on journeys to artwork gala’s, museums, and galleries to expertise what they’re taught in school and to work together with practising artists and different professionals within the discipline. The institute additionally hosts an impartial artists’ residency. For a few decade and a half, Muholi has funded near 200 individuals to review images on the Market Photo Workshop, a famend Johannesburg images college which counts the artist as an alumnus. ‘In that manner, I’m not alone and other people get to share their visibility as properly and on the similar time get some {qualifications} to provide work of their communities and surrounding areas,’ shares the artist, including the thought is ‘to not get pleasure from your individual sources however to share with totally different communities in essentially the most sort method.’
In early March, Muholi was named the 2026 laureate of the distinguished Hasselblad Award, the world’s largest images prize which acknowledges the artist’s ‘highly effective and sustained contribution to up to date artwork,’ and declaring ‘activism and group work is an integral a part of their follow, which mixes political urgency and formal mastery, making Muholi a central determine in world queer visible tradition.’ Previous winners of the Hasselblad award embody Henri Cartier-Bresson, Richard Avedon, Nan Goldin, David Goldblatt, Malick Sidibé and Carrie Mae Weems. ‘It means an entire lot. It’s for all of us,’ says Muholi, referring to Black Lesbian, queer and trans communities. ‘It’s not for me. And it implies that the world is listening.’
Ntozakhe II, Parktown, 2016 -0415
(Image credit score: © Zanele Muholi. Courtesy Yancey Richardson, New York and Southern Guild, Cape Town)
Muholi studied Advanced Photography on the Market Photo Workshop in Johannesburg within the early 2000s, and later earned an MFA in Documentary Media at Toronto’s Ryerson University in 2009. In 2013, the artist was named an Honorary Professor of video and images on the University of the Arts/Hochschule für Künste in Bremen, Germany (2013), and acquired an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Liège in Belgium in 2023.
For over twenty years, Muholi has been on the forefront of celebrating and documenting the lives of Black lesbian, homosexual, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex communities by means of images, serving to to shift narratives and develop conversations about activism, illustration, race, identification, and human rights. These themes are mirrored in a rising variety of tasks, together with Only half the Picture (2003-4) on lesbian lives and hate crime survivors, Brave Beauties (2014-ongoing), which celebrates transwomen and Somnyama Ngonyama (Hail the Dark Lioness) (2014-ongoing, a self-portrait collection which challenges stereotypes and illustration of Black individuals in visible tradition.
Lungile Cleo Dladla KwaThema Community Hall Springs Johannesburg 2011
(Image credit score: © Zanele Muholi. Courtesy Yancey Richardson, New York and Southern Guild, Cape Town)
‘Before I’m a photographer, I’m a visible activist residing within the artwork world making an attempt to make a distinction to make sure that there’s visibility of Black our bodies in mainstream images,’ explains Muholi. ‘And it principally implies that for the subsequent generations, they’ve a way of who we’re as people, as communities, as gender non-conforming individuals and in addition human beings who’re making a distinction on this lifetime,’ provides Muholi.
Some of those works by the photographer are held in collections together with the Pinault Collection (France), Tate Modern (United Kingdom), Museum of Modern Art (United States), Foundation Louis Vuitton (France), and Wits Art Museum (South Africa) The work has also been show in solo and group shows around the world including at Tate Modern, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires, Fotografiska Stockholm, Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and the South African Pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale.
On 10 October through 24 April 2027, Muholi’s work will be on view in a major solo exhibition at the Hasselblad Centre in Gothenburg, Sweden, as part of their Hasselblad Award prize, which includes SEK 2,000,000 (about £163,000), a gold medal and a Hasselblad camera. The solo show’s opening will be preceded by a week of public events and the award ceremony on 9 October.
‘I am here because of the community that helped me,’ says Muholi, adding, ‘we owe it to ourselves to make sure that there is a visual archive that speaks to the moment, and speaks to the future as well.’
Qiniso, The Sails, Durban, 2019
(Image credit: © Zanele Muholi. Courtesy Yancey Richardson, New York and Southern Guild, Cape Town)