From Advocate:
Mariette Pathy Allen has photographed the transgender community for nearly 50 years.
Allen, who photographs the transgender, genderfluid, and gender variant communities, will be featured in a new exhibition in New York by Culture Lab LIC called “Breaking Boundaries: 50 Years of Images”along with a separate exhibition called “Breaking More Boundaries” featuring Zackary Drucker, Jess T. Dugan, and other artists inspired by Allen and her work.
“Through her artistic practice, she has been a pioneering force in gender consciousness, contributing to numerous cultural and academic publications about gender variance and lecturing worldwide,” a press release about the exhibitions states.
The exhibitions, running from June 1 to July 30, are curated by Orestes Gonzalez and Jesse Egner.
“The importance of this exhibition in this retrograde, evil political climate, can’t be exaggerated,” Allen said in a press release. “We hope that by presenting transgender and non-binary people as relatable, caring, and creative, we can help to dispel the misinformation and fear of gender and sexual non-conforming people. I am very grateful to the Culture Lab LIC’s Plaxall Gallery for giving me the opportunity to have this retrospective of some of my work on gender variance.”
In 1978 Allen met a trans woman, Vicky West, at Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Since then she’s been involved in trans rights organizing and photographing trans and gender nonconforming people across the U.S. — with some images from Cuba, Burma, and Thailand.