The Hasselblad Foundation has announced that Zanele Muholi is the recipient of the 2026 Hasselblad Award, widely regarded as the world’s most prestigious prize in photography.
The award, now in its 46th year, includes SEK 2,000,000 ($216,357), a gold medal and a Hasselblad camera, and will be marked by a major solo exhibition at the Hasselblad Center from 10th October 2026 to 4th April 2027.
A week of public events will accompany the award in Gothenburg, including a seminar with the County Administrative Board of Västra Götaland, a concert with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, a book launch and exhibition opening. The official award ceremony will take place on 9th October, followed by an artist talk at Moderna Museet in Stockholm on 13th October.
Photography, visibility and resistance
In announcing the prize, the Hasselblad Foundation described Muholi as one of the most influential photographers working today, whose work extends far beyond the traditional boundaries of the art world.
According to the Foundation’s citation:
“Zanele Muholi stands as one of the most influential contemporary photographers, with an impact that reaches far beyond the art world. They use portraiture to articulate and celebrate the presence, depth, and dignity of the Black LGBTQIA+ community in South Africa and the rest of the world.”
Born in 1972 during the apartheid era, Muholi has built an internationally recognised practice centred on portraiture, documenting and celebrating Black queer communities while challenging discrimination and historical erasure. Their work combines formal precision — through carefully controlled composition, lighting and tone — with a powerful political urgency.
The portraits often present their subjects with a direct, unwavering gaze, creating what the Foundation describes as “alternative visual histories” that foreground both vulnerability and strength.
“This prize is not mine alone”
Responding to the award, Muholi emphasised the collective dimension of their work and the communities that have shaped it.
“This prize is not mine alone. I carry it with the many faces, names, and histories that have trusted me with their stories. From Umlazi to every space where Black LGBTQIA+ people continue to fight to exist freely, this recognition affirms that our lives are worthy of being seen – not as statistics, not as shadows, but as full human beings.”
They continued:
“For years, my work has been about visibility and resistance. 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.”
For the Foundation’s CEO Kalle Sanner, the award recognises a practice that merges artistic innovation with human rights advocacy.
“It is with great pleasure that we award Zanele Muholi the 46th Hasselblad Award. In their artistic practice, Muholi combines photography with activism, creating powerful and significant works in which human rights are central. We look forward to presenting an extensive selection of their work this autumn at the Hasselblad Center.”
The upcoming exhibition will offer a comprehensive look at Muholi’s practice, bringing together key works that have shaped contemporary photography while expanding the visibility of Black queer life on a global stage.
About the artist
For more than two decades, Zanele Muholi has used photography as a tool of visual activism, confronting the silencing and discrimination faced by Black queer communities in South Africa and beyond.
Their landmark portrait series Faces and Phases (2006–ongoing) was conceived as an act of resistance against systemic violence. Now entering its twentieth year, the project — an evolving archive of portraits of Black lesbian, transgender and gender-nonconforming people — has become one of the most significant bodies of work in contemporary photography.
Earlier projects laid the foundations for this approach. Only Half the Picture (2003–04) documented the lives of Black lesbians and survivors of hate crimes in South Africa, while Brave Beauties (2014–) honours trans women and celebrates trans visibility.
Muholi’s widely recognised self-portrait series Somnyama Ngonyama (Hail the Dark Lioness) (2018–ongoing) further expands this practice. In these striking images, Muholi draws on the visual language of classical portraiture, fashion photography, domestic labour and ethnographic imagery to challenge the historical representation of Black bodies in visual culture. The works reframe identity and empowerment through bold gestures of performance and self-representation.
Building community and cultural infrastructure
Alongside their photographic practice, Muholi has been deeply involved in building platforms for queer and visual activist communities. In 2009 they founded Inkanyiso, a forum dedicated to queer and activist media, while the Muholi Art Institute, established in 2022, supports emerging artists across multiple disciplines.
Today Muholi’s work sits at the centre of global conversations around race, representation, activism and human rights. Their influence has helped shape a new generation of queer and Black photographers, demonstrating how image-making can function as both artistic expression and political testimony.
Born in 1972 in Umlazi, Durban, Muholi now lives and works between Johannesburg and Cape Town. They studied Advanced Photography at the Market Photo Workshop in Johannesburg and later completed an MFA in Documentary Media at Ryerson University, Toronto, in 2009.
Muholi’s work has been exhibited internationally, including presentations at the Venice Biennale, Tate Modern, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris, Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires, and Serralves Museum in Porto.
They have received numerous honours including the ICP Spotlights Award (2022), Spectrum International Prize for Photography (2020), and the Lucie Award for Humanitarian Photography (2019).
Muholi is represented by Yancey Richardson Gallery in New York and Southern Guild in Cape Town and New York.
