Exhibition 'Under Cover: A Secret History Of Cross - Dressers' in The Photographers' Gallery
Drawn from the extensive personal archives of filmmaker and photography collector Sébastien Lifshitz, this exhibition of amateur photographs from Europe and the US explores the surprisingly widespread practice of cross-dressing, through a century of private images. Dating from 1880 onwards, the photos are mostly of unnamed and unknown figures – the majority having been collected from flea markets, garage sales, junk shops and ebay, amongst other non-specialist spaces - and offer a candid view into the hidden worlds of individuals and groups that chose to defy gender conventions.
Brought together, the photographs reflect a range of styles and attitudes from theatrical, defiant, shy, proud, subversive and understated; showing individuals and groups from different classes, professions, genders and nationalities, whose commonality is that they dared to play with dress codes in front of a camera, even if unable to do so in public.
