The South African visual activist and photographer’s book, Somnyama Ngonyama: Hail the Dark Lioness, won the Kraszna-Krausz best photography book award.
The Kraszna-Krausz Book Awards is the UK’s leading awards for books published in the fields of photography and the moving image.
The event was held at the Royal Society of Arts in London last week where Sir Zanele Muholi’s Somnyama Ngonyama bagged the major international award just a week after Muholi was honoured by Amref in New York City at the Art Ball charity gala.
Somnyama Ngonyama features self-portraits that explore Muholi’s own image and possibilities as a black woman in today’s global society, and most important to speak emphatically in response to contemporary and historical racisms.
After the release of the book Muholi said, ‘I am producing this photographic document to encourage people to be brave enough to occupy spaces without fear of being vilified, to teach people about our history, to reclaim it and encourage people to use artistic tools as weapons to fight back.’
Through years of documentation, archiving and photographing mainly members of the LGBTQIA+, Muholi has formed many relationships with photographed participants featured in Faces and Phases, Brave Beauties, Beaulahs and many other projects.
After being announced the Kraszna-Krausz best photography book award winner, Muholi said, ‘I’m reclaiming my blackness, which I feel is continuously performed by the privileged other. I want to thank our publisher and all the writers and contributors who made it possible for this reality... siyabonga zihlobo.’
