Catherine Opie is an American fine-art photographer. Best known as a portraitist, she also photographs landscapes, cityscapes, architecture, and lifestyles. At the center of her investigations are many questions about relationships to community, which she explores on in all her bodies of work. She has investigated the aspects of many different communities, while creating portraits of the people from them. Opie takes interest in how identities are shaped by our surroundings. "Many of her works capture the expression of individual identity through groups (couples, teams, crowds, etc.)."
In one of her series titled High School Football from 2012, Opie traveled around the country documenting different football teams, players, and their fields. The series was shot between 2007 and 2009. Her stated subject isn’t the actual game of football but the feeling of community it brings athletes and fans. Depicted in the images are the players perspiring in their uniforms, action shots during the games, the landscapes that surround the playing fields, and the stands full of cheering families. Her talent for revealing the individual qualities of her subjects among the …show more content…
This is the most controversial and well-known series of communities that she’s taken. Opie is an open member of the LGBT community and currently resides in Los Angeles, California with her wife. This series features friends of hers but also transgender women and men, drag queens, cross-dressers, “leather-dykes”, and other folks who don’t fall into their traditional gender roles. Her images of people from these sexual subcultures shine light on communities that aren’t normally examined. In an interview she states that she became the “poster child for out, leather dyke-art” and wasn’t interested in that, so she no longer does any work in that specific
In one of her series titled High School Football from 2012, Opie traveled around the country documenting different football teams, players, and their fields. The series was shot between 2007 and 2009. Her stated subject isn’t the actual game of football but the feeling of community it brings athletes and fans. Depicted in the images are the players perspiring in their uniforms, action shots during the games, the landscapes that surround the playing fields, and the stands full of cheering families. Her talent for revealing the individual qualities of her subjects among the …show more content…
This is the most controversial and well-known series of communities that she’s taken. Opie is an open member of the LGBT community and currently resides in Los Angeles, California with her wife. This series features friends of hers but also transgender women and men, drag queens, cross-dressers, “leather-dykes”, and other folks who don’t fall into their traditional gender roles. Her images of people from these sexual subcultures shine light on communities that aren’t normally examined. In an interview she states that she became the “poster child for out, leather dyke-art” and wasn’t interested in that, so she no longer does any work in that specific