“Transformations”: Documenting the Lives of Cross-Dressers Throughout the 1980s

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.