(CROSS DRESSING)

A rare album with more than 150 exceptional photographs, all featuring highly stylized and elegant men cross dressing.

The album primarily features a male couple, who are dressed in exquisite outfits, including evening gowns with elaborate accessories, a wedding gown (including a marriage scene with one figure in a suit), and fanciful costumes, and are posing in front of cleverly designed backdrops (such as shimmering hanging textiles, artfully arranged corners of rooms, and a screen decorated in stars). The album features a number of sittings and combinations of figures, hinting at the both the delight and seriousness with which each tableaux was designed and executed. The resulting photographs are well composed and printed. Both the scope and early date of this album add to its rarity--our research has not uncovered an early body of work that similarly documents a committed investigation of form and identity. Silver prints, the images measuring from 114.3x76.2 to 266.7x165.1 mm; 4½x3 to 10½x6½ inches, mounted recto/verso to album pages, many pages with dates, in ink, below the images. 4to, green leatherette, edges lightly worn. 1930-41.

[6,000/9,000]