Mariette Pathy Allen
Breaking Boundaries: 50 Years of Images
Jun 5 - 28 , 2025
This extraordinary retrospective features the groundbreaking work of photographer Mariette Pathy Allen, whose ongoing practice over the last five decades has captured the love, beauty, intimacy, joy, and heartache of transgender and gender-expansive communities across the globe. Her photographs continue to serve as both artistic treasures and historical documents of a community that has been continuously marginalized, yet thrives with strength and perseverance—especially during our current political climate that is once again changing, in ways that attempt to diminish the validity of transgender individuals and threaten their safety. This exhibition offers a powerful look into the evolution of attitudes toward transgender, non-binary, gender-fluid, and gender non-conforming individuals, seen through the lens of an artist who has dedicated her career to the humane and dignified portrayal of these communities.
Mariette Pathy Allen’s photographic journey with gender diversity began in 1978, with images of this often underrepresented community defying the sensationalism often seen in media coverage at the time. Her intimate portraits of individuals, couples, and families depicted as relatable people helped reshape the then common perceptions of gender-variant individuals as freaks or deviants. Allen’s disarming modus operandi throughout her career has been to extend invitations to countless individuals to be themselves in front of her camera. This comprehensive exhibition traces the progression of Allen’s career, spanning five decades of work in support of transgender visibility and dignity.
All images are courtesy of CLAMP, New York City
In-Person Artist Talk
Sat, Jun 7, 3:30 PM
Mariette Pathy Allen (American, b. 1940, she/her) is a photographer of transgender, genderfluid, and gender variant communities, as well as other continuous series such as Birth and Families, The Face of New Jersey, People With Art, Flowers and Fantasy, Texas, and Scapes. In 1978, on the last day of Mardi Gras in New Orleans, Allen met Vicky West, a trans woman she befriended and through whom she was first invited to Fantasia Fair, a transgender conference where she would serve as official photographer. She traveled across the US to many other transgender conferences, participated in political activism, and worked for the Transgender Tapestry magazine. She continues to pursue the work of photographing, interviewing, and advocating on behalf of gender-nonconforming people. Allen is the author of five books that have brought visibility to transgender communities across the world, including Transformations: Crossdressers and Those Who Love Them (1989), The Gender Frontier (2004), TransCuba (2014), Transcendents: Spirit Mediums in Burma and Thailand (2017), and I Was The Girl: Art by Vicky West (2024). She has made dozens of slide presentations to various groups, participated in radio and television programs, and been a consultant and still photographer for films. Allen’s work is included in numerous public and private collections and has been exhibited internationally. Her work is being archived by Duke University's Rare Book and Manuscripts Library and the Sallie Bingham Center for Women's Studies. Allen is based in New York City and is represented by CLAMP, New York. You can find her online at www.mariettepathyallen.com and on Instagram at @Mariette_Pathy_Allen.