Berlin born artist Moena Weiss’ passion for creating portraits of queer women in Cape Town
By Edward Tsumele, Winner of NHC Heritage Journalism Award for 2026
Pictures by Moena Weiss
“I have used photography since the age of 15, to explore and create my own world. Looking at a portrait, tells you a lot about a person, and therefore, I have used photography to engage with people and create a world of my own making,” photographer Moena Weiss tells me as we meet on the side lines of the opening of an exhibition at Goethe Institut in Parkwood on Saturday.
Yes, her medium of exploring the complexity of life that human beings grapples with daily is photography. However it soon dawns on me that Moena is more than a photographer, but much more.
As I get to know Moena and her art practice, a picture of a person committed to making sure that marginal communities, their lifestyles, fears and deep commitment to making sure that they do not remain on the margins as conversations take place on the mainstream, is a passionate endeavour.
She has sought these subjectivities out, digging deep into their emotions, making these bodies visible and hopefully better understood if not 100 percent accepted as part of society’s reality, using portraiture to tell their stories. Their lives, fears, hopes and their struggle to live a normal life in societies they are preferred invisible, their stories not part of the mainstream conversations.
“My scholarly interest is at the intersection of photography and psychology. I am a PHD candidate in psychology, and have been researching the lives of trans-women in South Africa. Having moved to Cape Town since 2024, from Berlin, I have been ever since, documenting the lives of these women through photography.
“I have been accepted warmly in these communities, particularly in Cape Town. However the project itself extends beyond Cape Town, to other parts of South Africa. I call what I do with this project as a collaborative effort between me and the community, who are the subject of my study.
We work together throughout the process of creating these portraits, discussing how they would like to be portrayed. I give them the opportunity to select which images of them they would want to be exhibited,” she tells me.
It is Moena’s endeavour that she came to Johannesburg from Cape Town, to expand the scope of her art practice, including connecting with queer communities in Johannesburg.
On the very same Saturday, she tells me that she was going to attend the Pride Parade in Sandton City after our meeting, to connect and network with the queer community in Johannesburg, before flying back to Cape Town on Monday, 2 November 2026.
Her Artist statement titled One can´t breath underwater – on the experience of queer woman from South Africa that Moena shared with CITYLIFE/ARTS sheds more light on her current project researching and documenting the lives of trans-women.
“I sometimes catch myself holding my breath until I realize I cannot move without breathing. I came to understand that this is fear — fear of being a woman in this world. As a girl, I did not yet have language for it. But growing into a woman, I grew into that fear — into the quiet discipline of shrinking, of monitoring my body, my voice, my desire.
This threat lives in our bodies: in the way we walk home at night, scan rooms, and calculate risk. In South Africa especially, women are constantly aware that our space and boundaries can be verbally or physically attacked at any moment. I am drawn to the contradictions in how womanhood is perceived. Women have long been cast as the origin of evil — Eve blamed for exile, for the loss of paradise, for desire and knowledge itself — while simultaneously being expected to be beautiful, silent, and accommodating. Temptation and purity. Danger and decoration. This project documents the lived experiences of queer women who grew up in South Africa — women whose bodies carry intertwined histories of fear, resistance, and becoming. Through portraiture and collaborative storytelling, I center community, communion, and shared memory as inspiration to fall in love (with being) a woman. Inspired by *Bone Black* by bell hooks, the work transforms silent rupture into collective witnessing — an archive of trauma, courage, and radical becoming.
About Moena Weiss
Moena Weiss (born December 25, 1995) is a photographer, psychologist (M.A. in Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy), focused on the intersection of art, psychology, and queer mental health. She explores identity, resilience, and visibility, particularly within marginalized communities. Moena‘s projects include Until all birds can sing – On being queer in South Africa, a documentary photography project examining the LGBTQ+ community in Cape Town, and Womenhood, which critiques gender constructs through photography.
She is also developing a new project that highlights the experiences of queer women in South Africa, exploring themes of gender inequality and empowerment. As part of her PHD, her work includes developing a selfportrait analysis as both an artistic and psychological tool for reflecting on identity and gender.
She uses methods like the Selfportrait-Reflection-Questionnaire and body image analysis, providing a space for self-reflection and empowerment through portraiture, particularly for trans* individuals. Moena has exhibited internationally, with upcoming solo shows in San Francisco and Cape Town.