Zanele Muholi
Bra
About the SessionFraming a Nation: The Garth Walker Photography Collection and Other Properties presents a selection of photographs from the personal archive of acclaimed graphic designer and photographer Garth Walker. Born in Pretoria, he trained at Technikon Natal in the 1970s, where he met artist Stephen Inggs, a life-long friend. Walker emerged as a pivotal figure in South African graphic design and visual culture in the 1990s through his design firm Orange Juice Design. In 1995 he launched the influential print magazine i-jusi as a platform to showcase new graphic design, typography and illustration. Later issues were sometimes exclusively devoted to photography.
Prominent artists featured in i-jusi included Roger Ballen, Conrad Botes, David Goldblatt and Anton Kannemeyer. It has been exhibited in over 25 countries and is held in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and Bibliotèque Nationale d'France, Paris. Beyond the magazine, Walker is best known for the unique, custom typeface he produced for the Constitutional Court of South Africa in 2004. Inspired by street typography and prison graffiti, his typography is featured on the court’s building façade.
A longstanding collector, notably of Zulu headrests and nineteenth-century KwaZulu-Natal photography, Walker began acquiring contemporary South African photography in the early 2000s. His choices were instinctual and guided by his interest in vernacular design and the country’s rich documentary photography tradition. He acquired early works by Pieter Hugo, Zanele Muholi and Guy Tillim, before their international rise to prominence. His collection includes personal documentary work by the award-winning photojournalists Jodi Bieber and Greg Marinovich, as well as an important photo from 1965 by David Goldblatt taken at Hartebeespoort Dam north of Johannesburg. The influence of American documentary registers in his holdings of Stephen Shore and Rosalind Fox Solomon.
A highlight of this auction is the inclusion of i-jusi Portfolios #1, #2 and #3, produced to sustain the magazine’s independent publication and featuring seminal works by South African artists. Portfolio #3, with a photographic focus curated by Pieter Hugo, underscores the collaborative impulse shaping this material. The collection offers a rare opportunity to acquire works from a defining moment in the evolution of post-apartheid visual culture.
About this Item
signed, dated and inscribed with the title in pencil in the margin and on the reverse of the sheet
Notes
The present lot is a unique print, printed by Dennis da Silva at Silvertone Johannesburg in January 2006.
Another example is in the Tate Collection.
The present lot forms part of Zanele Muholi's Only Half the Picture series, which focuses on the symbolic quality of skin. Through this body of work, the artist uses body politics as a powerful tool to acknowledge a community that has long been ignored, showcasing beautiful scars, human blood and luxuriant hair.¹
This work was first encountered by the collector at an exhibition in Cape Town, as part of the Month of Photography curated by Professor Geoffrey Grundlingh. After the collector took an interest in Muholi's work, art writer Sean O'Toole provided him with the artist's contact details, and the print was then commissioned directly from Muholi. At the time, the original negative had been lost, with only a scan retained — making a digital print the only available option. Silver gelatin prints of the image have since appeared on the market, presumably created from the same scan.
1. Siham Ali (2020) ArtUK, Zanele Muholi: championing black and queer visual narratives, online, accessed 21 August 2025.
Provenance
Acquired from the artist by the current owner, Johannesburg, December 2005.
The Garth Walker Photography Collection.
Exhibited
Stevenson, Cape Town, Only Half the Picture, 29 March to 29 April 2006, another example exhibited.
Yancy Richardson, New York, Sawubona, 17 April to 23 May 2025, another example exhibited.
The Garth Walker Photography Collection
The present lot forms part of a selection of photographs from the personal archive of acclaimed designer Garth Walker. Born in Pretoria and trained at Technikon Natal in the 1970s, Walker is best known for designing the unique typeface adorning the Constitutional Court of South Africa. He was also the publisher of i-jusi, a magazine for experimental graphic design and photography exhibited in 25 countries and held in important international collections. A discerning collector, Walker began acquiring contemporary South African photography in the early 2000s, guided by an instinct for vernacular image-making and documentary practice. The collection includes work by internationally acclaimed documentarians Jodi Bieber, David Goldblatt, Pieter Hugo, Greg Marinovich, Zanele Muholi and Guy Tillim. A key highlight is the inclusion of i-jusi Portfolios #1–3, with Portfolio #3 curated by Pieter Hugo. The collection offers a rare opportunity to acquire works from a defining moment in the evolution of post-apartheid visual culture.
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