Self-Portrait/Cutting, 1993
Oliver in a Tutu, 2004
Nick,2003
Justin Bond, 1993
Amy, 1996
Catherine Opie is an American photographer whose work has been largely portraiture focused on different groups of people including the LGBT community, surfers, and high school football players. However, her work also extends into photographing landscapes such as freeways and ice fishing huts. She received her masters degree from the California Institute of the Arts in 1988 and is a photography professor at UCLA.
Catherine Opie's human subject choice reminds me of the late American black and white photographer, Diane Arbus, in her use of unconventional people. Transvestites, nudists and the "ugly" would be in her candid-like portraits. Both Opie and Arbus' photographed portraits look almost candid because of their random nature and somewhat awkward subjects - which made the artists like the advocates for underdogs.
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