HARLEM, NY.- The first New York museum exhibition of South African photographer Zwelethu Mthethwa (b. 1960, Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa) brings together three compelling series: “Interiors” and “Empty Beds” document the domestic lives of migrant workers in and near Johannesburg, South Africa, while photographs in “Common Ground” focus on shared experiences of natural disaster in urban areas, featuring houses in post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans, Louisiana and on the outskirts of Cape Town, South Africa, after wildfires. Though his photographs are documentary in nature, Mthethwa consciously works against documentary conventions. Mthethwa presumes no objectivity toward his subjects, considering portraiture a form of collaboration between sitter and photographer. Originally trained as a painter, the artist adopts several formal