Photographer's statement by Zanele MUHOLI
"I am producing this photographic document to encourage individuals in my community to be brave enough to occupy spaces—brave enough to create without fear of being vilified. . . . To teach people about our history, to rethink what history is all about, to reclaim it for ourselves—to encourage people to use artistic tools such as cameras as weapons to fight back." (© Zanele MUHOLI)
Background information
"Zanele MUHOLI's work 'Somnyama Ngonyama, Hail the Dark Lioness' is the long-awaited monograph from one of the most powerful visual activists of our time.
Content
This photo volume, 'Somnyama Ngonyama, Hail the Dark Lioness' by Zanele MUHOLI, features over ninety evocative self-portraits, each image drafted from material props in Zanele MUHOLI's immediate environment. These portraits reflect the journey, self-image, and possibilities of a black woman in today’s global society. A powerfully arresting collection of work, Zanele MUHOLI’s radical statements of identity, race, and resistance are a direct response to contemporary and historical racisms. (...)
With more than twenty written contributions from curators, poets, and authors, alongside luxurious tritone reproductions of Zanele MUHOLI’s images, the photo book 'Zanele Muholi: Somnyama Ngonyama, Hail the Dark Lioness' is as much a manifesto of resistance as it is an autobiographical, artistic statement." (publisher's note, © Aperture, 2018)
About the South-african photographer, Zanele MUHOLI (*1972 in Umlazi)
Photo books by Zanele MUHOLI
- Format
- HC, 26,5 x 35,5 x 2,5 cm. (10,5 x 14 inch.), 212 pp., 100 tritone b/w ills., text language: English