Zanele Muholi on the Myriad Possibilities of the Self

Join Aperture and NeueHouse for a conversation delving into Somnyama Ngonyama, Hail the Dark Lioness, Volume II, the second title in Zanele Muholi’s widely acclaimed self-portrait series. Muholi and Lesley A. Martin, executive director at Printed Matter, New York, and coeditor of this title, will discuss the artist’s poetic interpretations of personhood, queerness, Blackness, and possibilities of self.

In Somnyama Ngonyama, Hail the Dark Lioness, Volume II, Zanele Muholi explores and expands upon the publication of the first volume in 2018, photographing themself in a range of new international locations. Drawing on material props found in each environment, Muholi boldly explores their own image and innate possibilities as a Black individual in today’s global society, and—most importantly—speaks emphatically in response to contemporary and historical racisms.

This program is presented by Aperture, NeueHouse, and AIPAD. The conversation will be followed by a book signing. RSVP is required.

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Zanele Muholi (born in Umlazi, Durban, South Africa, 1972) is a visual activist and photographer, cofounder of the Forum for the Empowerment of Women, and founder of Inkanyiso, a forum for queer and visual media. Muholi has won numerous awards, including France’s Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres; ICP Infinity Award for Documentary and Photojournalism; Fine Prize for an emerging artist at the 2013 Carnegie International; and a Prince Claus Award. Their Faces and Phases series was shown at dOCUMENTA (13) and the fifty-fifth Venice Biennale and was shortlisted for the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize in 2015. The first volume of Somnyama Ngonyama (Aperture, 2018) was awarded the Kraszna-Krausz Photography Book Award in 2019. Muholi is an honorary professor at the University of the Arts Bremen, Germany. They are represented by Stevenson Gallery, Johannesburg, and Yancey Richardson Gallery, New York.

Lesley A. Martin is executive director of Printed Matter and coeditor of Somnyama Ngonyama, Hail the Dark Lioness, Volume II with Renée Mussai. Previously, she was the creative director of Aperture, where she served as editor on more than one hundred fifty books, and was the founding publisher of The PhotoBook Review.

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Image: Zanele Muholi, Mihla IV, 2020; from Zanele Muholi: Somnyama Ngonyama, Hail the Dark Lioness, Volume II (Aperture, 2024). © 2024 Zanele Muholi