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Photographer spends 35 years capturing cross-dressers on camera in a mission to 'de-freakify' them

 

For veteran photographer Mariette Pathy Allen, her lifelong interest in the transgender community was sparked by a chance encounter during a 1978 Mardi Gras celebration.

Allen was vacationing with her husband in New Orleans that year when she ran into a group of cross-dressers at the hotel where she was staying. The next morning, the transgender revelers invited the photograph to join them for breakfast.
Later, Allen asked her new acquaintances if she could take a picture of them by the pool, which they agreed to. When she raised her camera to take a group photo, Allen was unexpectedly struck by something she noticed in the eyes of one of her subjects.

 

 

Chronicler: Mariette Pathy Allen has been photographing transgender people, like Kay (pictured), a former Green Beret, for the past 35 years

 

Chance encounter: Allen first became interested in the cross-dressing community when she came across a group of transgender friends while vacationing in New Orleans in 1978 and took a picture of them

 

Noble cause: Allen has made it her mission to 'de-freakify' transgender and gender queer people in her photos by revealing their humanity

'I felt as if I was looking at the essence of a human being rather than a man or a woman,' Allen wrote in the bio section of her website years later.
Allen, a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, who had previously spent her days photographing artists and scenes on the streets of New Jersey, was suddenly thrust into a new and exhilarating world of the transgender subculture.
That serendipitous encounter in a New Orleans hotel set Allen on a new career path, and she has devoted the past 35 years to documenting the lives of transgender, gender queer, gender fluid and intersex people, their partners, and eventually, their children.
The person who introduced her to that universe, which was entirely foreign to her and very much taboo at the time, was ironically the same cross-dresser whose striking eyes had such an impact on the young photographer in New Orleans.

 

Exploring a community: Allen has photographed and interviewed both female-to-male and male-to-female cross-dresses in the course of her career spanning more than three decades and counting

 

Breaking stereotypes: The subjects in Allen's images are of different ages and backgrounds

 

Intimate portrait: Allen captured a transgender person named Tony with his wife and stepdaughter after chest surgery

 

Modern family: This undated image shows cross-dresser Inkera (second left), with her aunt's five children, Schenectady, New York

As it turned out, her new friend, Vicki West, ended up living not far from Allen in Manhattan and started bringing her along to parties and events in the transgender community.
'When I started doing portraits of transgender people, no one was doing it and I had to figure out what would be the most helpful way of doing it, what would be the meaning of it?' she told in a recent interview with Slate Magazine.
Her goal as an unofficial chronicler of the varied and multifaceted cross-dressing culture has become to 'de-freakify' transgender people by capturing their core essence beyond the wigs, makeup and outfits, thus allowing those in the mainstream to view them for who they really are: human beings. 

 

Beauty ritual: A little girl named Rachel was depicted watching her father transform into Paula in Philadelphia

 

Finished product: With her transformation complete, the meticulously made up and dressed Paula poses with daughter Rachel

 

 

Inspiring: What unites all of Allen's works is the way in which every shot celebrates the humanity of the subjects in their day-to-day joys and sorrows

 

Private moments: Transgender couple Max and Cori pictured cuddling in their home (left), and in a more intimate scene on the right, Max is shaving his partner's legs

To that end, Allen published two books on the transgender culture: Transformations: Crossdressers and Those Who Love Them, which came out in 1990, and The Gender Frontier, published in 2003. Both works include photographs as well as interviews with people in the community.
She is currently working on a third book about female cross-dressers in Cuba.  

Allen's works are striking in their range, focusing on people of different genders, ages and races. Some images are sparse and black-and-white, while others are colorful and vibrant.

 

New generation: Allen has been attending events for transgender teens like these three young transmen and 17-year-old transwoman who came out to the Southern Comfort Conference

 

All-American kids: During the True Spirit conference in Georgia, Allen caught up with a group of teens hanging out together at the venue

 

Pleasures of family life: Cross-dresser Cas, seated on a couch, is playing with her grandchild as her daughter-in-law looks on

Some of the photographs feature the families of transgender people, among them several strikingly intimate portraits, like a scene in a hospital room, or a couple's bedroom.
What is common to all of Allen's works, however, is the way in which every shot celebrates the basic humanity of her subjects. 
 
 By Snejana Farberov

dailymail.co.uk