Catherine Opie
American Photographer
Introduction
Since the early 1990s, Catherine Opie has produced a complex body of photographic work, using studio portraiture, landscape photography, and urban street photography to explore notions of communal and cultural identity. This Resource Unit provides techniques for exploring both the visual arts and other areas of the curriculum, and has images that can be downloaded or projected for classroom use.
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Biography
Catherine Opie was born in Sandusky, Ohio in 1961. When she was almost nine, she discovered the work of photographer Lewis Hine, who documented the plight of child laborers at the turn of the 20th century. Inspired by Hine’s photographs, she requested a camera for her ninth birthday, and was given a Kodak Instamatic by her parents. She immediately began photographing her family and neighborhood, exhibiting a fascination with community that continues to this day. Opie notes, “basically what I did then, and I still do is wander around with my camera to describe my relationship to the world and where I live.” more
