Get ready! Under Cover: A Secret History of Cross-Dressers will soon be presented to you by The Photographers’ Gallery in a creative and culturally diverse showcase of pictures that offer a candid view into the hidden worlds of individuals and groups that chose to defy gender conventions.
Held from 23 Feb – 3 June, this unique exhibition will comprise a rare collection of photographs showing both men and women posing using the apparel and gestures that are traditionally associated to the ‘opposite sex’.
The images, which are mostly anonymous and amateur in nature, were pulled from the personal archives of talented filmmaker and photography collector Sébastien Lifshitz.
The purpose of the exhibit is to explore the alternative lifestyle of cross-dressing, and this can be achieved by viewing private works that have been uncovered over the course of a century.
Taken from Europe and the US, the photographs date from 1880 onwards, and most have been sourced from a variety of different places (namely flea markets, garage sales, junk shops and other non-specialist spaces).
The collection includes distinct images of Marie-Pierre Pruvot (born Jean-Pierre Pruvot, 11 November 1935), the recognisable Algerian-born French transsexual woman (otherwise known as Bambi), who was the subject of an award-winning documentary by Lifshitz in 2013.
The compilation of pictures reflect a mix of styles and attitudes – theatrical, defiant, shy, proud, subversive and understated – yet they all share the same cross-dressing theme. The subjects in the photos come from different classes, professions, genders and nationalities, yet they are linked in the sense that they were open to experimentation and breaking ‘convention’.
Under Cover: A Secret History of Cross-Dressers is, essentially, a celebration of diversity, invention and freedom (relating specifically to fashion and self-expression).
> Hannah Montgomery
