Der Greif - Issue 19 by Zanele Muholi

Der Greif has invited Zanele Muholi, supported by Alexander Tutsek-Stiftung, to guest-edit Issue 19.

The theme for the open call is “I Am Because of You, Mother Earth.”

You are the environment. Your body is a landscape, your face a geography, your breath an atmosphere. The water in your blood, the minerals in your bones, the soil that feeds you: all of it connects you to everything else. Nothing exists in isolation. This is the oldest truth there is.

“It is not just me guest-editing: this issue of Der Greif is a shared process of making something beautiful and outstanding together.” Zanele Muholi

I Am Because of You, Mother Earth. – Curatorial statement by Zanele Muholi.

“Everything that we are is the environment. Water is part of the environment. Blood in your system is the environment. Your body as the landscape, that is a form of the environment. When you say environment, people would think of the landscape and it ends there. But you won't think of the elements and nuances that make this whole thing whole.

I could say this issue is about the constitution. But the constitution is the environment, and the environment is the landscape. And the landscape is the voice, and the voice is the community. And the community is something else. All of these things are interconnected in one way or the other. You are the environment.

A person could photograph their face and say: Look, the environment! My eyes are the north. My mouth is the south. My ears are east and west.

I really want to push people and challenge them. People are limited, and we keep on limiting ourselves. I want us to look at the environment way beyond just the physical space. I want people to think of environment as everything that lives in it.

All these things connect. Mother Earth in all of us.

Because of environment, I am. Because of you, I am. Because of them, I am.”

This issue wants to break brackets, between ages, between disciplines, between the global South and the global North. It asks you to challenge yourself, to think like a child again, to refuse the borders between self and surroundings, between the personal and the political. To use materials with meaning: paper because it comes from soil and sand, gold because it holds beauty, light because it reveals what darkness cannot.

Zanele Muholi invites you to explore what environment means when we stop seeing it as something outside of ourselves. What is home when it is not a building, but a necessity, something constitutional, something elemental? When it is the people surrounding you? What does it mean to recognize that your existence is made possible by others, by land, by history, by struggle, by love?

Photographers, writers, poets, and essayists from all over the world, encouraging collaborative submissions. We are looking for work with both bones and flesh — form and content, skill and lived experience. Work that speaks to the heart with depth.

Zanele Muholi

Zanele Muholi is a celebrated visual activist, humanitarian, and art practitioner invested in educational activism, community outreach, social work, and youth development. They focus on the documentation and celebration of the lives of South Africa’s Black lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, Queer, and intersex communities.

Born in Umlazi, Durban, and now based in Cape Town, Muholi studied Advanced Photography at the Market Photo Workshop in Johannesburg (2001–2003) with David Goldblatt and completed an MFA in Documentary Media at Ryerson University, Toronto (2009). They have received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Liège, Belgium (2023), and were appointed Honorary Professor at the University of the Arts in Bremen, Germany (2013).

Since 2006, Muholi has documented the lives and resilience of South Africa's Black LGBTQIA+ communities. Their ongoing portrait series Faces and Phases captures Black lesbian and transgender individuals, building a visual history and positive imagery rooted in resistance and mutual recognition. In Somnyama Ngonyama (Hail the Dark Lioness), Muholi turns the lens on themselves, creating self-portraits that reclaim Blackness and challenge dominant representations of Black women through experimenting with different characters and archetypes referring to specific events in South Africa’s political history. By exaggerating the darkness of their skin tone, Muholi reclaims their Blackness and offsets the culturally dominant images of Black women in the media today.

Muholi's mission has always extended beyond the gallery, having shown their work in major museums worldwide both as solo exhibitions and in group shows. In 2002, they co-founded the Forum for Empowerment of Women (FEW), responding to the needs and safety of Black lesbian women. In 2009, they launched Inkanyiso, a platform for queer visual media, and in 2021 established the Muholi Arts Institute (MAI) in Cape Town. They facilitate access to art spaces for youth practitioners through projects such as Ikhono LaseNatali and continue to provide photography workshops for young women and in the townships through PhotoXP.

Why submit to Issue 19?

• Have your work seen by renowned artist Zanele Muholi
• Get the chance to be published in Issue 19 and get a free copy plus additional copies at a highly discounted rate.
• Be part of related events Der Greif will organize in relation to the release of Issue 19 during Paris Photo 2026 and beyond.
• Get the chance to publish an Artist Feature on dergreif.org, a highly-frequented international source of photographic art.

Voluntary Donation

Der Greif is a registered non-profit. In these challenging economic times – especially for arts organizations and artists – we are convinced to provide a vital platform for our community. If you're in the position to support this mission, we value your support.

Since launching Guest Room in January 2015, we've invited a broad range of professionals (gallerists, editors, curators) to create opportunities for artists to share their work and get it in front of an international network they might not have access to otherwise. We are more committed than ever to continue this work.

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About Der Greif

Der Greif is an award-winning organization for contemporary photography.

We unite diverse voices in the arts, providing a vital platform for talent at early stages in their career. Through monthly grants, a vibrant community, and increasing visibility, we create a springboard for emerging artists, image makers, and photographers, guiding their path into the art world.

Our initiatives are uniquely rooted in crowdsourcing. This consistent approach enables genuine participation for young artists who often lack the resources to join competitions, festivals, and exhibitions or to travel and expand their network.

With our accessible formats and global network, we're democratizing the art world. Our collaborators – guest curators, grant recipients, and featured artists – are among contemporary photography's most significant voices.

Since issue No. 10, Der Greif's annual print edition has been guest-edited by leading contemporary artists, including Jason Fulford, Broomberg & Chanarin, Penelope Umbrico, Sylvie Fleury, Shirin Neshat, Torbjørn Rødland, and Hank Willis Thomas.
The first ten issues always featured poetry next to photographic images.

Der Greif collaborates with renowned cultural institutions worldwide, realizing projects with C/O Berlin, Pinakothek der Moderne, Haus der Kunst, Münchner Kammerspiele, FOAM, the Aperture Foundation, Fotomuseum Winterthur, and many others.

About Alexander Tutsek-Stiftung

The Alexander Tutsek-Stiftung is a non-profit foundation based in Munich that supports contemporary art and science. It was established in December 2000 by the entrepreneur Alexander Tutsek and Dr. Eva-Maria Fahrner-Tutsek to share responsibility for the cultural foundations of our society.

The foundation’s vision is a vibrant world of art and science that drives social progress and contributes to a successful human coexistence. With its commitment and its funding projects, it focuses in particular on neglected, overlooked or even special and particular areas in art and science, and aims to strengthen them sustainably.

In its internationally oriented exhibition and collection activities, the Alexander Tutsek-Stiftung focuses on contemporary photography as well as contemporary sculptures and installations using the medium of glass. It regularly shows exhibitions on innovative topics and builds up its continuously growing collection on this basis. The aim is to open up new perspectives on important questions of our time and to provide access to the two media of photography and glass to as broad an audience as possible.