An afternoon with Carmen

Carmen arrives at the DIVA Awards in 2008

Sad news today that Sydney (via New Zealand) transgender icon Carmen Rupe passed away aged 75.

Carmen in her bedroom

I met her several times over the years while photographing for Time Out.

The most memorable was an afternoon i spent with her and writer Angus Fontaine in her small Surry Hills apartment. She spoke at length about her amazing life, born as Trevor in a sleepy New Zealand town, a stint in the army, a move to Sydney, prostitution, time in jail, a career as a drag performer in Kings Cross’s 60′s heyday and a fulltime switch to life as a woman.

Her home was a shrine to her fabulous life. Every inch of the place decked with mementos. I feel awfully sad for the poor soul faced with the grim task of pulling it all down.

Carmen's bathroom and me in the mirror

From Carmen's scrapbook

Before she was Carmen she was Trevor

Carmen's front door bell

Mother

The wall of Carmen's living room

Carmen at Stonewall

Related Posts

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 15th, 2011 at 1:44 pm. It is filed under Documentary Photography and tagged with , , , , , , . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

One Response to “An afternoon with Carmen”

  1. Vale Carmen Rupe – jamesobrien.id.au says:
    December 17, 2011 at 8:47 pm

    [...] more great photographs of Carmen, you should visit Daniel Boudist’s blog. Rate this: Share this:Like this:LikeBe the first to like this post. Filed Under: Blog « [...]