Zanele Muholi: Sawubona

Sawubona—a Zulu greeting meaning “I see you”—captures the essence of Muholi’s photographic practice: an insistence on recognition and dignity for Black queer and trans communities. The exhibition brings together selections from key series including Only Half the Picture, Being, Beulahs, and Faces and Phases, each documenting lived experiences of intimacy, gender expression, vulnerability, and strength. Through carefully staged and candid imagery, Muholi reclaims visual narratives often excluded from dominant cultural archives. Their portraits act as both personal testimony and political statement, inviting viewers to confront structures of erasure and inequality while offering space for empathy and connection. With a visual language that is direct yet deeply poetic, Muholi affirms Black queer life as both ordinary and extraordinary—deserving of recognition, memory, and reverence.