My series portrays the everyday life of Alison Martinu, a suburban cross-dresser living in Newcastle.
These pictures are more than a temporary escape; they are a testament to the self-creation of identity.
Alison describes the need to express their feminine identity through an alter ego:
“Very few of us are in a position to integrate both aspects of ourselves into our everyday lives. Also, most heterosexual cross-dressers find that their partners do not accept their inclinations and have to keep the whole thing secret.”
Digital photography and the Flickr platform revolutionised Alison’s experience of cross-dressing. Having never gone out in public dressed in feminine clothing, Alison found that these platforms offered an opportunity to explore and express their femininity to others.
Usually expressing themselves in private, cross-dressers like Alison might otherwise have remained overlooked.
I came away feeling that it would be interesting to reflect on the ordinariness of the lives of people who have always existed but have often remained unseen. [Official Website]
About Lisa Carletta
Lisa Carletta is a multidisciplinary artist whose work has been exhibited at prestigious festivals, galleries and art fairs worldwide. Driven by a continuous desire to learn and expand her artistic knowledge, she enrolled at the Royal College of Art in London, where she completed a Master of Fine Arts degree in 2017.
Through her artistic practice, Carletta explores themes surrounding the female body and self-representation. Her work frequently draws on personal experiences and memories, which play a central role in her creative process. She creates whimsical and colourful images that simultaneously reveal universal human insecurities and anxieties.
Carletta’s work constructs a fantastical world in which nothing is quite what it seems. [Official Website]
