Zanele Muholi is a visual activist, humanitarian, and photographer from Umlazi, Durban. Muholi documents and archives the lives and struggles of LGBTQI+ communities, Black South African woman-identifying workers, violence, and questions of identity, all through portraits, photographs, calligraphy, installations, or more recently paintings and sculptures. Muholi studied Advanced Photography at the Market Photo Workshop in Newtown, Johannesburg, and in 2009 completed an MFA: Documentary Media at Ryerson University, Toronto. In 2013, they became an Honorary Professor at the University of the Arts/Hochschule für Künste Bremen.

Awards and accolades received include ICP Spotlights (2022); SPECTRUM International Prize for Photography (2020); Lucie Award for Humanitarian Photography (2019); a fellowship from the Royal Photographic Society, UK (2018); France’s Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (2017); the Mbokodo Award in Visual Arts (2017); ICP Infinity Award for Documentary and Photojournalism (2016); Africa'Sout! Courage and Creativity Award (2016); Prince Claus Award (2013); Index on Censorship - Freedom of Expression art award (2013); and the Casa Africa award for best female photographer, and Fondation Blachère award at Les Rencontres de Bamako African Biennial of Photography (2009).

Notably, Muholi exhibited in May You Live in Interesting Times, the 58th Venice Biennale (2019); they produced a city-wide project titled Masihambisane - on Visual Activism for Performa 17, New York (2017) and featured in the inaugural exhibitions at the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, Cape Town, among numerous other solo and group exhibitions.

Zanele Muholi will be presented by Yancey Richardson Gallery.