From Photograph Magazine:
Mariette Pathy Allen has been photographing the transgender community for half a century. Her first book, Transformations: Crossdressers and Those Who Love Them (Dutton), was published in 1990, and almost 30 years later, in 2019, her exhibition Rites of Passage: 1978-2006 was shown at the Museum of Sex. In a review of that show, our critic David Rosenberg wrote, “Photographs tell stories, they provide a way for us to join a collective narrative through our personal histories. Simply by being present with her subjects, by capturing both the ordinary and extraordinary, Pathy Allen has given visibility to a history that was always there.” Through July 30, viewers can see her work at the Culture Lab LIC, in Mariette Pathy Allen: Breaking Boundaries, 50 Years of Images. A companion group exhibition of work relating to her photographs of gender-expansive people, Breaking More Boundaries, is also on view, with photographs by Jess T. Dugan, Zachary Drucker, as well as artists selected through an open call. As a record number of bills are being advanced that attack LGBTQ people and transgender youth, Pathy Allen’s sensitive portraits witness and celebrate that community.