Manchester-born artist Benji Reid brings his distinctive fusion of photography, theatre and movement to London this September, appearing alongside South African photographer Zana Masombuka in an exhibition exploring identity, ancestry, memory and the power of imagination.
Two artists working across different generations, countries and traditions will come together at London’s October Gallery this September in an exhibition that places Black identity, memory and storytelling at its heart.
South African artist Zana Masombuka will present a major selection of photographic works rooted in her Ndebele heritage, while acclaimed Manchester-born artist Benji Reid takes the spotlight with images that blur the boundaries between photography, choreography and theatre.
Running from 3rd September to 3rd October 2026, the exhibition forms part of October Gallery’s season of contemporary African art, bringing together artists from across the African continent and the African diaspora.
For Reid, the camera has never simply been a tool for recording what is in front of him.
The award-winning artist describes himself as a “Choreo-Photolist”, a term he coined to capture a practice in which choreography, theatricality and photography meet within a single image.
The results are immediately recognisable. Reid’s carefully constructed photographs often place his own body at the centre of extraordinary, gravity-defying scenes. Figures appear suspended in space, familiar objects become theatrical props and everyday reality gives way to something more dreamlike.
Yet behind the visual spectacle are deeply personal subjects.
His work has explored fatherhood, mental health, vulnerability, isolation and what it means to live as an outsider. Reid uses photography to create imagined worlds, but those worlds remain firmly connected to lived experience.
A career shaped by performance
Reid’s journey to photography began long before he picked up the camera professionally.
Born in Manchester in 1966, he has spent more than three decades contributing to Black physical theatre, producing and performing work for cultural institutions including the National Theatre, Birmingham Rep, PS122 in New York and Sydney Opera House.
That background in movement and performance continues to shape the way he constructs photographs today.
Reid began producing photographic work in 2012 and has since exhibited at Somerset House, the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts in New York, the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester and October Gallery.
His photograph Holding on to Daddy won the Mental Health category of the Wellcome Photography Prize in 2020, while his solo exhibition Laugh at Gravity was shown at October Gallery in 2020 and 2021.
In recent years, Reid has brought the two sides of his creative life even closer together.
His performance Find Your Eyes, which premiered in 2023, combines dancers, photography and theatre, with images created in real time before an audience. The production was presented during the 60th Venice Biennale in 2024 and later toured internationally, including performances at Sadler’s Wells in London in 2025.
It is a natural extension of an artistic career that has consistently challenged the idea that photography, theatre and movement should exist separately.
Zana Masombuka: looking to ancestry and Black joy
© Zana Masombuka Image courtesy the Artist and October Gallery, London.
Photo by John Baloy
Alongside Reid, October Gallery will present a substantial body of work by Zana Masombuka, whose photography draws on Ndebele culture, family, spirituality and the landscape of South Africa.
Born in Siyabuswa in 1995, Masombuka explores identity, ritual, modernity and cultural inheritance from the perspective of a 21st-century Ndebele woman.
The exhibition brings together work from several of her major series, including Nges’rhodlweni: A Portal for Black Joy, Ubonani: What Do You See?, Time: Gadesi S’khathi, Proudly South African and Namba S’khambe.
At the centre of Nges’rhodlweni: A Portal for Black Joy is the idea of the sacred gathering space within the Ndebele household — a place where generations come together through storytelling, art and shared experience.
For Masombuka, that space becomes a way of thinking about how knowledge survives, how culture is passed down and how joy itself can connect one generation to the next.
Other works take the artist in different directions.
Ubonani: What Do You See? explores the symbolic power of red against the rocky landscapes of KwaNdebele, while Time: Gadesi S’khathi uses lemons as metaphors for the passing of time and the transmission of knowledge between generations.
Proudly South African turns towards youth identity and national symbolism, while Namba S’khambe examines institutional power, capitalism and inequality.
Perhaps the most personal work in the exhibition comes from Masombuka’s recent series, Akhulumile Amabhudango: Scenes from Dreams – ‘Journeys with Kosabo’.
Combining photography, sculpture and intricate beadwork, the series pays tribute to her late grandfather. Masombuka imagines travelling with him through dreams while considering ancestry, spirituality, kingship and guidance across generations.
The beadwork surrounding the photographs also draws on the long history of Ndebele beading as a form of visual communication, placing that tradition within a contemporary artistic practice.
Masombuka has already established a growing international reputation. Her work has been shown across South Africa, Europe and the United States, including at the 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair in London and New York and EXPO Chicago. She was awarded the 2025 Zenato Academy Jury Prize for photographers under 40.
Two different ways of telling a story
Masombuka and Reid come to photography from very different places.
Masombuka looks towards Ndebele culture, land, family and ancestral knowledge. Reid draws on decades of Black British performance and on his own experiences of fatherhood, vulnerability and mental health.
What connects them is an understanding that photography can do far more than simply document a moment.
In their hands, the camera becomes a means of building worlds, revisiting memory and giving visual form to experiences that are often difficult to express in words.
That meeting of perspectives makes the October Gallery exhibition more than a pairing of two photographers. It becomes a conversation across generations and continents about the ways identity is carried — through family, culture, the body, imagination and the stories we inherit.
Exhibition information
Zana Masombuka with a special spotlight on Benji Reid
Dates: 3rd September – 3rd October 2026
Private View: Thursday 3rd September, 6pm–8.30pm
Venue: October Gallery, 24 Old Gloucester Street, London WC1N 3AL
Opening hours: Tuesday–Saturday, 12.30pm–5.30pm
Admission: Free