![Black & White](https://mariettepathyallen.com/content/2.gender/3.transformations/2.black-and-white/30.jpg)
Melissa Faithful for Art-Sheep
Late 70s, New Orleans and Mardi Gras. A perfect combination under which photographer Mariette Pathy Allen first met cross-dressers.
This random encounter that led to a multi-decade exploration of the transgender community, inspired the photographer to focus on the lives and families of these people, photographing them for her series Transformations, a series that documented cross-dressers’ lives throughout the 1980s. “This chance meeting took me into a mostly closeted world of men who need to express their “feminine sides..” Realizing early on that I had stumbled upon something potentially liberating and almost completely misunderstood, I set out to de-freakify, and to offer a different view,” explains the artist. These intimate portraits and photographs of family members and personal objects, offer a different view to a society that misjudged and didn’t accept them.
Since its publishing in a book in 1989, this work is one of the most empowering series of works focusing on gender issues.
![Black & White](https://mariettepathyallen.com/content/2.gender/3.transformations/2.black-and-white/31.jpg)
![Black & White](https://mariettepathyallen.com/content/2.gender/3.transformations/2.black-and-white/29.jpg)
Maxine, Ariadne, and Virginia at the Unitarian Chruch, Provincetown, MA
![Black & White](https://mariettepathyallen.com/content/2.gender/3.transformations/2.black-and-white/28.jpg)
Carol with neon, Provincetown, MA
![Black & White](https://mariettepathyallen.com/content/2.gender/3.transformations/2.black-and-white/27.jpg)
Dan and Yvonne, reversed couple
![Black & White](https://mariettepathyallen.com/content/2.gender/3.transformations/2.black-and-white/26.jpg)
Ted, and Ted as Linda, NYC
![Black & White](https://mariettepathyallen.com/content/2.gender/3.transformations/2.black-and-white/25.jpg)
Naomi, during “Fantasia Fair”
![Black & White](https://mariettepathyallen.com/content/2.gender/3.transformations/2.black-and-white/24.jpg)
Chrysis, veteran, with her partner’s daughter
![Black & White](https://mariettepathyallen.com/content/2.gender/3.transformations/2.black-and-white/23.jpg)
Beth and her husband, Rita, near Boston
![Black & White](https://mariettepathyallen.com/content/2.gender/3.transformations/2.black-and-white/22.jpg)
Alice at Frederick’s of Hollywood, Los Angeles
![Black & White](https://mariettepathyallen.com/content/2.gender/3.transformations/2.black-and-white/21.jpg)
Shirley and Malinda, backstage at the Fantasia Fair Follies
![Black & White](https://mariettepathyallen.com/content/2.gender/3.transformations/2.black-and-white/20A.jpg)
Sheila, crying in church, Provincetown, MA
![Black & White](https://mariettepathyallen.com/content/2.gender/3.transformations/2.black-and-white/20.jpg)
Ramona and Cindy at an inn, Provincetown, MA
![Black & White](https://mariettepathyallen.com/content/2.gender/3.transformations/2.black-and-white/19.jpg)
Rachel, watching her father transform into Paula, Philadelphia
![Black & White](https://mariettepathyallen.com/content/2.gender/3.transformations/2.black-and-white/18.jpg)
Michelle and Betty Ann, Provincetown, MA
![Black & White](https://mariettepathyallen.com/content/2.gender/3.transformations/2.black-and-white/17.jpg)
Bob becoming Malinda
![Black & White](https://mariettepathyallen.com/content/2.gender/3.transformations/2.black-and-white/16.jpg)
John at Washing Machine factory, and John as Jackie
![Black & White](https://mariettepathyallen.com/content/2.gender/3.transformations/2.black-and-white/15.jpg)
Ari/Ariadne, near Los Angeles
![Black & White](https://mariettepathyallen.com/content/2.gender/3.transformations/2.black-and-white/14.jpg)
Elayne and son, Ryan, Iowa
![Black & White](https://mariettepathyallen.com/content/2.gender/3.transformations/2.black-and-white/13A.jpg)
Jane posing on the dunes, Provincetown, MA
![Black & White](https://mariettepathyallen.com/content/2.gender/3.transformations/2.black-and-white/13.jpg)
Diahanna, San Francisco
![Black & White](https://mariettepathyallen.com/content/2.gender/3.transformations/2.black-and-white/12.jpg)
Joanne and sister, Claudia
![Black & White](https://mariettepathyallen.com/content/2.gender/3.transformations/2.black-and-white/11.jpg)
Vicky doing the can can with Cori and Julia, L.I., NY
![Black & White](https://mariettepathyallen.com/content/2.gender/3.transformations/2.black-and-white/10.jpg)
Gwen, Milwaukee, WI
![Black & White](https://mariettepathyallen.com/content/2.gender/3.transformations/2.black-and-white/9.jpg)
Vanessa, Cape Cod
![Black & White](https://mariettepathyallen.com/content/2.gender/3.transformations/2.black-and-white/8.jpg)
Line-up, Mardi Gras, New Orleans. The photographer’s source of inspiration.