Breaking Boundaries: 50 Years of Images
Mariette Pathy Allen is a photographer born in Alexandria, Egypt, currently living and working in New York. With her work, Mariette drives attention to transgender, genderfluid, and gender variant communities with the central goal to present those communities as relatable people and inspire others for freedom of expression.
Mariette is an activist who participated in transgender conferences throughout the US and authored four books, including Transformations: Crossdressers and Those Who Love Them (1989), The Gender Frontier (2004), TransCuba (2014), and Transcendents: Spirit Mediums in Burma and Thailand (2017).
Breaking Boundaries: 50 Years of Images is an exhibition that features a retrospective of Mariette Pathy Allen’s work on gender-expansive people and their relationships in everyday life. Breaking More Boundaries is a group exhibition related to Allen's work that includes images made by invited artists from the open call alongside work created by Zackary Drucker and Jess T. Dugan around the topic of inclusiveness and gender-expansive people. Both exhibitions are part of Culture Lab LIC's celebration of Pride Month and are curated by Orestes Gonzalez and Jesse Egner, open from June 1 to July 30.
In this interview, we speak with Mariette about her 50-year career in photographing transgender people and her aspiration to depict the transgender community through their daily life and relationships being relatable to the wider audiences. Mariette shares, “I want cis people to realize that rather than contaminating them and their children, gender-expansive people teach us that we can be freer in expressing ourselves and we can get out of the straitjacket of conventional role-playing and presentation.” We discuss both exhibitions, the curation for the solo show by Orestes J. Gonzalez and Jesse Egner, and the group exhibition inspired by Mariette’s work. We close the conversation with the topic of the desired change in society of viewing, relating, and getting to know transgender and nonbinary closer through art.
Curated by Orestes J. Gonzalez and Jesse Egner
At Culture Lab LIC from June 1st to July 30th
Invited Artists
Jess T. Dugan
Zackary Drucker
Represented by ClampArt, New York City
‘The painting was serious-it was my chosen career-but photography gave me a chance for adventure, to explore.’
The Story
Hi Mariette, it’s very nice to meet and thank you so much for the opportunity to discuss your exhibition Breaking Boundaries: 50 Years of Images presented At Culture Lab LIC. Looking back at your decision to switch from painting to photography after receiving your MFA, what led you to make this turn?
Just before graduating, I was introduced to a photographer/teacher named Harold Feinstein. I ended up taking a class with him that was so much fun, so liberating, and supportive that I thought it would just be a good thing to continue. The painting was serious-it was my chosen career-but photography gave me a chance for adventure, to explore. After a while, I found I was getting photography jobs, and finally, I had to make a card that defined me.
‘Other people’s preferences are always fascinating! Originally, Orestes Gonzalez wanted to feature my work in Cuba, Burma, and Thailand. Then he reconsidered and decided the focus should be on my early work in the US because I was a pioneer in that I wanted to make the people I photographed relatable.’
Breaking Boundaries: 50 Years of Images
The exhibition is a retrospective of your work on the main themes you research and support - gender variance and inclusiveness. Could you tell about the process of curation and work with Orestes J. Gonzalez and Jesse Egner? What did the angle chosen for the exhibition reveal to you or allow to rediscover about the way others view and interpret your work?
Other people’s preferences are always fascinating! Originally, Orestes Gonzalez wanted to feature my work in Cuba, Burma, and Thailand. Then he reconsidered and decided the focus should be on my early work in the US because I was a pioneer in that I wanted to make the people I photographed relatable. Jesse Egner, the co-curator, is my assistant and is very familiar with my work. He discovers photographs that I never considered or sometimes didn’t even remember taking! That was exciting and helped me see other qualities in my work.
‘I want cis people to realize that rather than contaminating them and their children, gender-expansive people teach us that we can be freer in expressing ourselves and we can get out of the straitjacket of conventional role-playing and presentation.’
Through the Prism of Relationships
I was touched when I read your story of discovering a human beyond gender during your stay in New Orleans for Mardi Gras in 1978 and encountering a group of crossdressers, “I felt as if I was looking at the essence of a human being rather than a man or a woman.” Your work is devoted to celebrating the transgender community by emphasizing relationships and love. Through retrospection of the last 40 years you’ve been photographing the transgender community, what have you discovered that is essential to present to the wider public through exhibitions and books to spark conversation and acceptance?
My goal, as soon as I came to know transgender people, was to present them as relatable people who lived in the daylight of everyday life, who could have families and jobs, and a sense of humor. Images of transgender people could be found in porn shops and medical journals, both of which presented them as bodies without minds. Photographers and filmmakers tended to portray gender-nonconforming people as freaks, solitary, sick, and dangerous. They were 'the other' and were blamed for being that way. My presentations, in books, slide shows, and exhibitions, depict people who are diverse. I hope nobody can assume that all the people under the vast transgender/nonbinary umbrella are the same. I want cis people to realize that rather than contaminating them and their children, gender-expansive people teach us that we can be freer in expressing ourselves and we can get out of the straitjacket of conventional role-playing and presentation.
