On Saturday, 17 October, at the Market Photo Workshop in Newtown, Zanele Muholi opens Sibaningi, an exhibition marking two decades of Faces and Phases, the portrait series they began in Johannesburg in 2006. The show runs until 5 December. A book on the same body of work launches alongside it. The production is by the Muholi Art Institute and curated by Lufuno Ramadwa.

The homecoming arrives at a remarkable moment. On 9 October in Gothenburg, Muholi receives the Hasselblad Award, the world's largest photography prize, which carries SEK 2,000,000, a gold medal, a Hasselblad camera and a solo exhibition at the Hasselblad Center from 10 October 2026 to 4 April 2027. Muholi is the first Black queer African photographer to be honoured. "This prize is not mine alone, Sibaningi," they said on being named laureate. "I carry it with the many faces, names, and histories that have trusted me with their stories."

Sibaningi is isiZulu for "we are many," and the exhibition uses it as a statement of recognition. The project began at the very school where Muholi studied, the Newtown institution founded by David Goldblatt in 1989, in a country whose Constitution had promised equality while Black queer and trans people still lived with discrimination, violence and silence. Muholi was part of the community in the photographs. The aim was a record of people living, working and loving, not only a record of harm.

The title explains the method. Faces names the person before the camera. Phases names what time changes: gender expression, age, relationships, loss, work, home. Muholi has returned to many participants over years, in some cases decades, and the book and exhibition set early portraits beside later ones, with new faces joining them. "It is important to mark, map and preserve our mo(ve)ments through visual histories," Muholi has said, "so that future generations will note that we were here."

Muholi speaks at 12:00 on opening day, after which the exhibition opens. Entry is free, with safe parking at Newtown Junction Mall. The show forms part of Africa Pride month. In Gothenburg, the Hasselblad exhibition is curated by Louise Wolthers and Dragana Vujanović Östlind of the Hasselblad Foundation.

Zanele Muholi, born in Umlazi, Durban, lives between Johannesburg and Cape Town, holds an MFA in documentary media from Ryerson University in Toronto, and is represented by Yancey Richardson Gallery (New York) and Southern Guild (Cape Town).