Zanele Muholi's *Thembeka I, New York Upstate* is a striking black-and-white gelatin silver print from their celebrated series *Somnyama Ngonyama*, meaning "Hail the Dark Lioness" in Zulu. The work features Muholi's characteristically high-contrast self-portraiture, in which they darken their skin tones to confront and reclaim representations of Blackness against histories of racial and colonial violence. Through deliberate use of found objects and elaborate adornment, Muholi constructs a powerful visual language of identity, resistance, and self-determination.