Zanele Muholi is bringing two decades of their photographic work documenting Black LGBTQIA+ lives back to Johannesburg, just days after receiving one of the world’s major photography honours.
The internationally acclaimed photographer and visual activist will open Sibaningi at the Market Photo Workshop in Newtown on October 17, marking 20 years of their ongoing Faces and Phases project.
The timing makes the Johannesburg exhibition particularly significant.
On October 9, Muholi will receive the 2026 Hasselblad Award in Gothenburg, Sweden. They are the first Black queer African photographer to receive the prestigious award, which recognises their contribution to photography and their work around visibility, dignity and representation.
A solo exhibition of Muholi’s work will also open at the Hasselblad Center in Gothenburg on October 10 and run until April 2027.
But before Faces and Phases became an internationally recognised body of work, it began in Johannesburg in 2006.
Muholi studied at the Market Photo Workshop in Newtown, and the project grew from their desire to create a visual record of Black lesbian, transgender and gender-nonconforming people whose lives were often absent from mainstream representations.
Over the years, Faces and Phases has developed into an extensive photographic archive. Rather than documenting people only through stories of discrimination and violence, the portraits focus on their identities, relationships, work, communities and everyday lives.
The project also captures the passage of time.
Muholi has returned to photograph some participants years after their first portraits, allowing viewers to see how people and their circumstances change. The series therefore becomes more than a collection of portraits; it is a record of lives unfolding over two decades.
The title Sibaningi, which means “we are many” in isiZulu, reflects the idea behind bringing the work back to Johannesburg.
For Muholi, the photographs are part of a wider effort to ensure that Black LGBTQIA+ people are seen and remembered on their own terms.
“This prize is not mine alone. I carry it with the many faces, names, and histories that have trusted me with their stories,” Muholi said following their Hasselblad recognition.
The Johannesburg exhibition will include earlier portraits alongside later images, as well as new faces continuing the project.
It will also coincide with the launch of a book centred on the Faces and Phases body of work.
For Muholi, bringing the work back to the city where it began creates a full-circle moment: a project that started in 2006 as an effort to build a record of lives and experiences now returns to Johannesburg after gaining international recognition.
Sibaningi is produced by the Muholi Art Institute and curated by Lufuno Ramadwa.
The exhibition opens on Saturday, October 17, at the Market Photo Workshop in Newtown. Muholi will speak at midday, with the exhibition opening afterwards.
Entry is free, and the exhibition will run until December 5.
IOL
