Photographer Zanele Muholi Is Named The 2026 Hasselblad Award Laureate. Artsy

(MENAFN- USA Art News) Zanele Muholi Named 2026 Hasselblad Award Laureate, With Major Gothenburg Exhibition Set for Fall

Zanele Muholi’s portraits have long insisted on being seen: direct, unflinching images that build an archive against erasure. In 2026, that commitment will be recognized on one of photography’s most prominent stages, as the South African visual activist and artist Zanele Muholi (b. 1972) has been named the 2026 Hasselblad Award laureate.

The Hasselblad Foundation announced the honor in a press statement, noting that the award includes a gold medal and a Hasselblad camera. The foundation also confirmed that Muholi will be the subject of a major solo exhibition at the Hasselblad Center in Gothenburg, Sweden, on view from October 10, 2026 through April 4, 2027. An award ceremony is scheduled for October 9.

In its statement, the Hasselblad Foundation positioned Muholi’s influence as both aesthetic and civic.“Zanele Muholi stands as one of the most influential contemporary photographers, with an impact that reaches far beyond the art world,” the foundation said, praising the work’s command of“composition, colour, greyscale, and lighting” and the way the portraits“foreground individuals with a direct and dignified gaze.” The statement emphasized that Muholi’s practice challenges“prejudice and discrimination” while proposing“alternative visual histories,” adding that activism and community work are integral to their approach.

Muholi, who describes themself as a visual activist, has spent more than two decades documenting and celebrating Black LGBTQIA+ lives in South Africa, using photography as a tool for social change. In a press statement, Muholi framed the award as inseparable from the community their work centers:“For years, my work has been about visibility and resistance,” they said.“It has been about creating an archive so that no one can say, ‘We did not know.’ When this honour comes, I receive it on behalf of my community; those who have been erased, those who are still here, and those who are yet to see themselves reflected with dignity.”

Born in Durban, South Africa, in 1972 during apartheid, Muholi now lives and works between Johannesburg and Cape Town. Their training includes advanced photography studies at the Market Photo Workshop in Johannesburg and an MFA in documentary media from Ryerson University in Toronto, completed in 2009.

Over the years, Muholi’s work has appeared in major international contexts, including the Venice Biennale, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires. Their recent institutional solo exhibitions have included Fotografiska Stockholm (2018), the Seattle Art Museum (2019), and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (2022).

Muholi is represented by Yancey Richardson Gallery in New York and Southern Guild Gallery in Cape Town and New York. With the Hasselblad Center exhibition now on the calendar, 2026 is set to bring a concentrated view of a practice that merges formal rigor with political urgency - and that continues to expand what photographic history can hold.

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