Arresting portraits of Naples’ third-gender population

Beginning with 2023’s breakout exhibition WE/US, which explored working-class butch and stud culture, Roman Manfredi’s rise is undeniable. An self-taught artist and photographer, Manfredi’s work often portrays people at the intersections of gender. Inspired in part by the artist’s discovery of an intriguing family photograph during a visit to an aunt and uncle in Emilia Romagna, Italy, Manfredi’s latest exhibition, TRA, honours the resilient legacy of a diverse community that has endured through 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 in the exhibition text. “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 name from the Italian word meaning “between”, TRA explores the ever-evolving state of gender diversity, while resisting the impulse to categorise or objectify difference. 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, often peddled by the right-wing press – that gender diversity is a new phenomenon – TRA focuses on the femminielli (singular femminiello), a third gender indigenous to traditional Neapolitan culture. For the project, Manfredi, who is based in London, headed to the streets of Naples – also stopping by Montevergine, a site of pilgrimage where femmenielli and other queer people attend to worship a shrine of the Black Madonna who, according to legend, saved a gay couple from death in the 1200s.

When in Naples, Manfredi was able to come into contact with the femmenielli culture, thereby photographing a community which has long preceded contemporary identity 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, in addition to femminielli, the project also highlights masculille – masculine-presenting individuals who were assigned female at birth. By expanding the remit of who was represented in the project, the artist not only continued the work explored within WE/US but found an opportunity to explore other forms of gender diversity and to “highlight the invisibility and absence of our presence historically”.

As a result of this focus on portraiture, the project’s centrepiece is a range of lovingly photographed individuals of varying ages and different identity codes. From masculille sporting gel-slicked hair and bold tattoos, their silver crosses glinting in the sun, to femmenielli adorned with elaborate floral headdresses or dainty crochet cardigans, it’s a visual catalogue of expansive gender presentation. 

Manfredi found the city of Naples to be a fruitful space for exploring the longevity of queer and gender diverse experience, and the project prominently features architectural details of the city, in addition to 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 series encourages a non-linear experience of time, engineering a sense of timelessness and eternity through a mix of black-and-white details, intimate portraits, and family photos. This is particularly prescient when we consider the photograph of Carnevale ‘cross-dressing’ ritual, which prompted some of the initial thinking behind the project. As Manfredi explains, the official narrative didn’t add up, prompting questions about an unofficial queer meaning to the image. As a result, the photo “stayed buried within my psyche and has remained ambiguous ever since” – encouraging the artist to explore untold stories, embracing the uncertain as a space of fruitful creation and, to now, explore versions of gender diversity which don’t always fit with clear-cut, contemporary 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 - 8th 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).