Bernice Mulenga Photographs Black Queer Nightlife

Bernice Mulenga, Drift, 2025, cyanotype on canvas on fabric. Courtesy: the artist and Goswell Road, Paris

Within a striking presentation of enlarged acetate negatives and cyanotypes printed on cotton canvas sit four analogue photographs with a slightly grainy, nostalgic quality. Each is mounted on a custom-made stainless-steel frame, evocative of the trays upon which drinks are brought out at nightclubs. These images present fragments of the bodies of couples engaged in embrace. In Lime(2025), a torso swathed in a fluorescent jumpsuit intersects with a figure in a palm-tree patterned outfit. In Together Again (2025), two bodies are shown from behind; the one closest to the camera – with short, bleached-blonde hair – wraps their arms around the second, who is almost obscured, save for a shoulder and the edge of a salmon-coloured mesh top. In these shots, Mulenga purposely excludes the faces of their subjects, capturing fleeting moments of joy and intimacy whilst respecting the revellers’ anonymity.

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