Mariette Pathy Allen has been photographing the transgender community for over 35 years. 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 throughout the globe. Her first book "Transformations: Crossdressers and Those Who Love Them,” published in 1990, was groundbreaking in its investigation of a misunderstood community. Her second book, published in 2004 and entitled, "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. It won the 2004 Lambda Literary Award in the Transgender/Genderqueer category. She then went on to publish “TransCuba” in 2014 and “Transcendents: Spirit Mediums in Burma and Thailand” in 2017 with Daylight Press.

Mariette’s life’s work is being archived by Duke University's Rare Book and Manuscripts Libra