Arresting portraits of Naples’ third-gender inhabitants 

Beginning with 2023’s breakout exhibition WE/US, which explored working-class butch and stud tradition, Roman Manfredi’s rise is simple. An self-taught artist and photographer, Manfredi’s work typically portrays folks on the intersections of gender. Inspired partially by the artist’s discovery of an intriguing household {photograph} throughout a go to to an aunt and uncle in Emilia Romagna, Italy, Manfredi’s newest exhibition, TRA, honours the resilient legacy of a various group that has endured by social shifts.

“I was rummaging around in a shoe box of exhibition photos when I found this picture of my grandmother and her friends,” Manfredi writes within the exhibition textual content. “My uncle’s explanation was that it was taken during Carnevale when my grandmother used to migrate to work in the rice fields of Piemonte, and that it was part of the cross-dressing ritual of Carnevale at that time. I was instantly intrigued to find out who his person was who was cross-dressed. Was this an actual wedding, as it seemed? Was my grandmother around queer people? Over time, these questions have prompted me to archive the experiences and visual representations of queer people within a variety of contexts.”

Taking its title from the Italian phrase that means “between”, TRA explores the ever-evolving state of gender variety, whereas resisting the impulse to classify or objectify distinction. Manfredi says. “This body of work continues my intention to approach gender diversity as something lived, relational and felt, rather than something to be explained or categorised.”

Defying the notion, typically peddled by the right-wing press – that gender variety is a brand new phenomenon – TRA focuses on the femminielli (singular femminiello), a 3rd gender indigenous to conventional Neapolitan tradition. For the challenge, Manfredi, who relies in London, headed to the streets of Naples – additionally stopping by Montevergine, a web site of pilgrimage the place femmenielli and different queer folks attend to worship a shrine of the Black Madonna who, in response to legend, saved a gay couple from death in the 1200s.

When in Naples, Manfredi was in a position to come into contact with the femmenielli tradition, thereby photographing a group which has lengthy preceded up to date id labels. “The femminiello is a deeply rooted and culturally specific figure in Neapolitan history, one that resists easy translation into contemporary categories,” explains Manfredi. “While their visibility has shifted over time, the femminiello is still acknowledged within Neapolitan culture, especially through oral histories, popular traditions, performance and collective memory. Their presence today is complex, shaped by modern social changes, tourism, and evolving understandings of gender, but they remain an important cultural reference point rather than a relic of the past.”

However, along with femminielli, the challenge additionally highlights masculille – masculine-presenting people who had been assigned feminine at delivery. By increasing the remit of who was represented within the challenge, the artist not solely continued the work explored inside WE/US however discovered a chance to discover different types of gender variety and to “highlight the invisibility and absence of our presence historically”.

As a results of this deal with portraiture, the challenge’s centrepiece is a variety of lovingly photographed people of various ages and totally different id codes. From masculille sporting gel-slicked hair and daring tattoos, their silver crosses glinting within the solar, to femmenielli adorned with elaborate floral headdresses or dainty crochet cardigans, it’s a visible catalogue of expansive gender presentation. 

Manfredi discovered the town of Naples to be a fruitful area for exploring the longevity of queer and gender various expertise, and the challenge prominently options architectural particulars of the town, along with portraiture. “Napoli is a place shaped by the accumulation of histories, beliefs, domestic spaces, and a diverse range of imagery felt necessary to reflect that layered experience. The past is very much part of the present,” the artist says. “You could be in 1685 or 1985 simultaneously.”

Ultimately, the collection encourages a non-linear expertise of time, engineering a way of timelessness and eternity by a mixture of black-and-white particulars, intimate portraits, and household images. This is especially prescient after we take into account the {photograph} of Carnevale ‘cross-dressing’ ritual, which prompted a number of the preliminary considering behind the challenge. As Manfredi explains, the official narrative didn’t add up, prompting questions on an unofficial queer that means to the picture. As a consequence, the picture “stayed buried within my psyche and has remained ambiguous ever since” – encouraging the artist to discover untold tales, embracing the unsure as an area of fruitful creation and, to now, discover variations of gender variety which don’t at all times match with clear-cut, up to date definitions.

Roman Manfredi’s TRA will tour the UK in 2026 as a recipient of the Jerwood/Photoworks Awards 5 alongside Sayuri Ichida’s 空席 (Kūseki). Running from 10 January – eighth February at Drawing Room and Tannery Arts (London); 21 February – 25 April at Barnsley Civic (South Yorkshire); 7 May 2026 – 4 July at Ffotogallery (Cardiff); and 12 September – 6 December at Street Level Photoworks (Glasgow).