Under Cover: A Secret History of Cross-Dressers

Fabulous exhibition at the Photographers’ Gallery of found images of people cross dressing. 

 
The work came from the collection of filmmaker and collector Sebastien Lifshitz who has been collecting these images from flea markets junk shops and eBay. They were beautifully grouped into themes.
 
My favourite images were the anonymous ones such as the first section of images of men dressed as women. These were personal photos so who knows who the people are or why they wanted to record themselves in women’s clothing. Some may be theatrical pictures but many just show a need to dress in this way. Each one has an unknown story behind it.

With other groups of pictures we know more about the people. There was a set from a community in Washington DC in which they took turns to host evening where there cross dressed. They are a lovely set of pictures of a group of friends. There was also a nice set of Bambi, a drag artist who had a 30 year career then left to have a new career as a French teacher.


 
The show also looked at women who dressed as men and pointed out that as well as many of these reflecting gender choices they also look at women wanting to take on the power roles of men. There was a section looking at the fashion in American women’s colleges to hold mock weddings and the reactions to this.

Closes on 3 June 2018


 
Review
Guardian


 

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