In 1978, on the last day of Mardi Gras in New Orleans, Mariette Pathy 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.
Pathy Allen writes: “Vicky’s story is unusual in that she was a successful artist both as a man and as a woman. As Dirk, he was Executive Art Director of a publishing company in New York. As Vicky, she served as Art Director of ‘Drag’ magazine and worked on other publications as well. She was stylish in both worlds. Vicky and I kept in touch until she died suddenly in 2005.”