Mariette Pathy Allen (

Alexandria Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...

, 1940) is a photographer for the

transgender A transgender (often shortened to trans) person has a gender identity different from that typically associated with the sex they were sex assignment, assigned at birth. The opposite of ''transgender'' is ''cisgender'', which describes perso ...

genderfluid Gender fluidity (commonly referred to as genderfluid) is a non-fixed gender identity that shifts over time or depending on the situation. These fluctuations can occur at the level of gender identity or gender expression. A genderfluid person m ...

, and

intersex Intersex people are those born with any of several sex characteristics, including chromosome patterns, gonads, or genitals that, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, "do not fit typical binar ...

communities and a writer. She has published five books, ''Transformations'': ''Cross-dressers and Those Who Love Them (1989)'', ''Masked Culture: The Greenwich Village Halloween Parade (1994)'', ''The Gender Frontier (2004),'' ''TransCuba (2014)'' and ''Transcendents: Spirit Mediums in Burma and Thailand (2017)''. She is an activist for gender consciousness and reflects positivity towards underrepresented communities.

Early life and education

Allen was born in Egypt to a wealthy Hungarian family who were involved in the shipping industry. Her first cousin once removed is

Mark Pathy Mark Pathy (born July 1969) is a Canadian businessman, philanthropist and commercial astronaut. He is the CEO of Mavrik, a privately owned Canadian investment company. He is also the chairman of Stingray Group and the former co-CEO of Fednav, a ...

. Allen graduated from

Vassar College Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States. The college be ...

and then attended the Graduate School of Fine Arts at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

where she received an MFA in Fine Arts and Painting. She took a photography class off campus and switched her focus from painting to photography. Her background in painting has influenced her photographic work as she has used it to explore "color, space, and cultural juxtapositions".

Career

She discovered that photography was like a passport into the world. This transition gave her the opportunity to meet new people while traveling all over the world. Ultimately, this sparked her career as a photographer where she photographed the transgender community for over 20 years. In 1978, Allen was staying in the same hotel with a group of cross-dressers celebrating

Mardi Gras Mardi Gras (, ; also known as Shrove Tuesday) is the final day of Carnival (also known as Shrovetide or Fastelavn); it thus falls on the day before the beginning of Lent on Ash Wednesday. is French for "Fat Tuesday", referring to it being ...

and was inspired to be begin photographing the intimate and often secretive lives of cross-dressers and transgender individuals. She grew into photojournalism and advocacy for the emergent transgender rights movement in the 1990s. She aims to photograph misunderstood communities in the "daylight of everyday life" and capture humanity with their families, in their careers, at their homes. Allen wrote ''Transformations: Crossdressers and Those Who Love Them'' in 1989. This book depicts the lives of heterosexual, married men who cross dress. She includes black and white portrait and interviews of her subjects. In her second book ''The Gender Frontier'' (2003), Allen documents the transgender community through political movements and public demonstrations. In

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

, the book was awarded the

Lambda Literary Award Lambda Literary Awards, also known as the "Lammys", are awarded yearly by Lambda Literary Foundation, Lambda Literary to recognize the crucial role LGBTQ+ writers play in shaping the world. The Lammys celebrate the very best in LGBTQ+ literatur ...

in the transgender category. Allen has contributed her work to magazines, books, photography exhibitions and documentaries all over the world. Allen's career highlights include being the photographer for Lee Grant's 1984 documentary '' What Sex Am I?,

Southern Comfort Southern Comfort (often abbreviated SoCo) is an American naturally fruit-flavored whiskey liqueur with fruit and spice accents. The brand was created by bartender Martin Wilkes Heron in New Orleans in 1874, using whiskey as the base spirit. Whi ...

'' (2001), and Rosa von Praunheim's '' The Transsexual Menace.'' Allen took the cover photo of Jamison Green's ''Becoming a Visible Man.'' She was an associate producer for an A&E documentary ''The Transgender Revolution'' (1998). Her photography has been exhibited in the permanent collection at the

Bibliothèque nationale de France The (; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites, ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository of all that is published in France. Some of its extensive collections, including bo ...

, the

Corcoran Gallery of Art The Corcoran Gallery of Art is a former art museum in Washington, D.C., that is now the location of the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design, a part of the George Washington University. Founded in 1869 by philanthropist William Wilson Corco ...

in Washington D.C., the

Brooklyn Museum of Art The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum in the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 500,000 objects. Located near the Prospect Heig ...

Houston's Museum of Fine Arts Houston's Restaurant is part of a group of upscale American casual dining restaurants, owned by Hillstone Restaurant Group, whose main corporate headquarters is in Phoenix, Arizona. There are 39 Hillstone locations in 11 states. Company profile T ...

, and the

New York Public Library The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second-largest public library in the United States behind the Library of Congress a ...

. Allen is unofficially referred to as the "official photographer of the transgender community." Allen's life's work is being archived by the Duke University Library Archive of Documentary Arts.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Allen, Mariette Pathy American LGBTQ rights activists Vassar College alumni University of Pennsylvania School of Design alumni American photographers 1940 births Living people Lambda Literary Award winners Egyptian emigrants to the United States American women photographers Genderfluid writers