The exhibition is dimly lit. And it’s supposed to be—it’s part of what makes it great. When I walked through the press preview, someone requested that the lights in the galleries be turned up. Our guide politely declined. The South African photographer and “visual activist” Zanele Muholi, whose “self-portraits captured with a camera” compose the show, had come through just that morning to tweak the lighting the way they liked it, sure of how they’d like to be seen.
Somnyama Ngonyama, Hail the Dark Lioness consists of around 75 black-and-white self-portraits that spill out of Seattle Art Museum’s Jacob Lawrence and Gwendolyn Knight Gallery and into the hallway and gallery that abut it. The walls are painted black, charcoal gray, and white, providing no bright contrast of any sort. Eight of Muholi’s portraits are blown up to the size of walls, almost physically involving the viewer in the composition; the others range in size, the smallest being the size of a large hand.
