For more than 30 years, New York based photographer Mariette Pathy Allen has been documenting transgender culture worldwide; in 2004 she won the Lambda Literary Award for her monograph The Gender Frontier. In her stunning new publication, TransCuba (Daylight, April 2014), Allen captures the transgender community of Cuba through 80 vibrant color photographs accompanied by a personal essay, and interviews. Her work focuses on the details of the everyday lives of her subjects engaging with family and friends and the community at large, revealing the growing visibility and acceptance of transgender people in a country whose government is transitioning into a more relaxed model of communism under Raúl Castro’s presidency.

Her first book Transformations: Crossdressers and Those Who Love Them was groundbreaking in its investigation of a misunderstood community. Her second book The Gender Frontier is a collection of photographs, interviews, and essays covering political activism, youth, and the range of people that identify as transgender in mainland USA. She has also been a valuable consultant to several films about gender and sexuality. Her life’s work is currently being archived by Duke University’s Rare Book and Manuscripts Library, and the Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s Studies. In addition to her work with gender, Mariette’s background as a painter frequently leads her to photographic investigations of color, space, and cultural juxtapositions such as east/west, old/new, handmade/manufactured. Mariette lives in New York City with a rotating cast of friends and loved ones.

There will be a book signing for TransCuba at the International Center of Photography Friday, March 7th, from 6:00 – 7:30 pm.