When Things Become Crown

theme Somnyama Ngonyama, Hail the Dark Lioness

This show presents Muholi's work as a fundamental response to the structure of photography as a tool of possession and control, redefining the relationship between the photographer and the photographed.

Muholi turns the camera toward the self, reweaving clothespins and rubber gloves into crowns and body adornments, rewriting the memory of dispossession as pride.

Bester VIII, Philadelphia, 2018. Courtesy Zanele Muholi; Southern Guild, Cape Town/New York; and Yancey Richardson, New York.