Photo Gallery: You Brought Your Own Light, Allie Crewe

In the summer of 2018, Manchester-based photographer Allie Crewe announced her first solo exhibition of photographic portraits, sponsored by Sparkle (the national transgender charity).

The nine-week exhibition at Manchester Central Library, You Brought Your Own Light, was a celebration of Crewe’s ground-breaking and evocative work with transgender subjects. Crewe will be hosting the award-winning exhibition at Clifford Whitworth Library and the MediaCityUK campus. The exhibition is an honest and inspiring display of authentic trans representation in one of the city’s most beloved and visible public spaces.

Having previously exhibited at the Getty Images Gallery and Lloyds of London, Crewe’s portraits have received critical acclaim and her work was shortlisted for the prestigious Portrait of Britain award in 2017. Her photographic portraiture recognises that there is nothing linear, defined or straightforward about femininity, or what it means to be a woman, in the 21st century. 

Crewe’s work and sensitivity is informed by her own abusive childhood which stifled her creativity and power of expression. Overcoming these events and rebuilding her life has given her a unique insight that enables her to convey powerfully honest photographic narratives of subjects who have transformed; rediscovering themselves after battling adversity. Her insistence that her work should remain authentic, creative and kind in order to capture the truth about her subjects was the inspiration for the title of her exhibition. 

To view more of Crewe’s work, please visit her website or find her on Instagram.