American photographer Catherine Opie has not only documented the cultural shift of the last few decades, she has also lived it. Once an outsider shooting her own “fringe community,” Opie is celebrated today for her evocative black and white and color photography and her confrontational examination of gender conventions. Through her lens, she investigates themes of individual identity and community.
Opie was born in Ohio in 1961 and spent her childhood in the Midwest. When she was 13, her family moved to California, where she set up a darkroom in the spare bedroom of the new house and started taking photographs. She received her BFA from San Francisco Art Institute in 1985, followed by an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts in 1988.
Opie started gaining recognition in the 1990s for her intimate studio portraits featuring other lesbian, gay and transgender artists and personal friends. Harkening back to traditional Renaissance-style portrait paintings, the photographs helped increase the visibility of marginalized communities as the fight for LGBTQ rights took shape.
Opie has embraced a range of additional subject matter. She traveled across the United States to photograph widely varying but quintessentially American groups, from high school football players to members of a staunchly conservative political movement. She documented ice-fishing sheds in Minnesota, the 2008 US presidential inauguration, the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival and anything and everything that caught her interest. For 2015’s 700 Nimes Road (DelMonico Books/Prestel), Opie trained her eclectic lens on the house and personal belongings of Elizabeth Taylor.
Opie has been teaching at the University of California, Los Angeles, since 2001 and has garnered numerous prestigious awards for her work, including the Women's Caucus for Art Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2008, the Guggenheim’s “Catherine Opie: American Photographer” exhibition spanned four floors and attracted thousands of people every day until it closed.
Despite her recognition and accolades, Opie continues to prefer subversive imagery. "Photographs are different these days," she told Introspective magazine in 2020. "The ones I like best are from those people who are bearing witness, like images of the protestors."
On 1stDibs, find original Catherine Opie photography and prints.
Curators, Catherine Opie Signed Vintage Photograph
By Catherine Opie
Located in Surfside, FL
CATHERINE OPIE (b. 1961, OH), SIGNED Vintage limited edition Photograph Born in Sandusky, OH, Catherine Opie received a BFA from San Francisco Art Institute and an MFA from the Cali...
Silver Gelatin
30 Minutes After Inauguration
By Catherine Opie
Located in Toronto, Ontario
Catherine Opie (b. 1961) is a renowned American photographer best known for her bold portraits, mysterious landscapes, and thought-provoking explorations of identity, community, gend...
C Print
$2,183
H 66.93 in W 51.19 in D 1.38 in
ICES Multicolor Set of Nine Framed Colour Photography Artworks
By Richard Heeps
Located in Cambridge, GB
ICES Multicolor Set of Nine Framed Artworks. A set of nine pop art prints by Richard Heeps from his Great British Staycation series 'On-Sea'. Taken betw...
Photographic Paper, C Print, Color, Silver Gelatin
$242
H 15.75 in W 18.51 in D 1.38 in
Red Dinosaur II, Milan - Brutalist Architecture Urban Color Photograph Framed
By Richard Heeps
Located in Cambridge, GB
Red Dinosaur, from Richard Heeps series A Short History of Milan, which began as a special project for the 2018 Affordable Art Fair Milan. It was well received and the artwork has be...
Photographic Paper, C Print, Color, Silver Gelatin
$242
H 16.15 in W 22.45 in D 1.38 in
Tape Collection, Type II Tutti Frutti - Contemporary Pop Art Color Photography
By Heidler & Heeps
Located in Cambridge, GB
Type II Tutti Frutti, from the Heidler & Heeps Tape Collection - The B Sides. The Heidler & Heeps collaborations are creative representations of Natasha Heidler and Richard Heeps’, p...
Photographic Paper, C Print, Color, Silver Gelatin
$417
H 23.63 in W 23.63 in D 1.38 in
Bitter Campari, Milan - Medium Square Framed Italian Typography Photograph
By Richard Heeps
Located in Cambridge, GB
Bitter Campari, Italian architecture street photography from Richard Heeps series, A Short History of Milan. 'A Short History of Milan' began in November 2018 for a special project ...
Photographic Paper, C Print, Color, Silver Gelatin
$580
H 36 in W 48 in
Sun Radiation, Abstract Diptych, Giclée Print, Yellow to Purple Spacial Gradient
By Ryan Rivadeneyra
Located in Barcelona, ES
Cyd Fontaine (Lausanne, 1992) is a contemporary artist renowned for her captivating use of dreamy atmospheric gradients, which has helped her carve a distinctive niche in the world o...
Photographic Film, Archival Ink, Photographic Paper, C Print, Digital, G...
$242
H 15.75 in W 18.51 in D 1.38 in
Palm Springs Poolside III, Ballantines Movie Colony, California - Color Photo
By Richard Heeps
Located in Cambridge, GB
Palm Springs Poolside, photograph from Richard Heeps, Dream in Colour series. Classic mid-century Palm Springs architecture, featuring cool blue skies and swimming pool with accents...
Photographic Paper, C Print, Color, Silver Gelatin
$242
H 15.75 in W 18.51 in D 1.38 in
Utopian Foyer I, Milan - Brutalist Architecture Urban Color Photograph Framed
By Richard Heeps
Located in Cambridge, GB
Utopian Foyer I, from Richard Heeps series A Short History of Milan, which began as a special project for the 2018 Affordable Art Fair Milan. It was well received and the artwork has...
Photographic Paper, C Print, Color, Silver Gelatin
$673
H 25.01 in W 30.71 in D 0.04 in
Fresh Squeezed, New Jersey - Typography Photography Color Print
By Richard Heeps
Located in Cambridge, GB
Fresh Squeezed, seaside boardwalk kitchen typography photography by Richard Heeps. This artwork is a limited edition of 25 gloss photographic print from negative accompanied by a si...
Photographic Paper, C Print, Color, Silver Gelatin
$580
H 36 in W 48 in
Under the Volcano, Mauve and Yellow, Earth Tones Diptych, Space Shapes, Mountain
By Cyd Fontaine
Located in Barcelona, ES
Cyd Fontaine (Lausanne, 1992) is a contemporary artist renowned for her captivating use of dreamy atmospheric gradients, which has helped her carve a distinctive niche in the world o...
Photographic Film, Archival Ink, Photographic Paper, C Print, Digital, G...
$943
H 31.5 in W 44.1 in D 1.97 in
Tape Collection, Side One Only Pink - Contemporary Pop Art Color Photography
By Heidler & Heeps
Located in Cambridge, GB
Side One Only Pink, from the Heidler & Heeps Tape Collection - The B Sides. The Heidler & Heeps collaborations are creative representations of Natasha Heidler and Richard Heeps’, per...
Photographic Paper, C Print, Color, Silver Gelatin
$943
H 39.38 in W 33.47 in D 1.97 in
Foyer IV, Milan - Italian architectural color photography
By Richard Heeps
Located in Cambridge, GB
Foyer IV, from Richard Heeps series A Short History of Milan which began as a special project for the 2018 Affordable Art Fair Milan. It was well received and the artwork has become ...
Photographic Paper, C Print, Color, Silver Gelatin
$626
H 23.63 in W 30.32 in D 1.97 in
Telephone V, Ballantines Movie Colony, Palm Springs - Interior Color Photography
By Richard Heeps
Located in Cambridge, GB
'Telephone V' part of Richard Heeps 'Dream in Colour' Series. This cool Palm Springs interior photography combines a softened monochrome palette and a mid-century modern nostalgic v...
Photographic Paper, C Print, Color, Silver Gelatin
Curators, Catherine Opie Signed Vintage Photograph
By Catherine Opie
Located in Surfside, FL
CATHERINE OPIE (b. 1961, OH), SIGNED Vintage limited edition Photograph Born in Sandusky, OH, Catherine Opie received a BFA from San Francisco Art Inst...
Silver Gelatin
Trash
By Catherine Opie
Located in New York, NY
Chromogenic print Signed on label, verso Accompanied by a letter from the artist explaining the background of the photograph. 70 x 30 inches, image This artwork is offered by Clam...
C Print
Curators, Catherine Opie Signed Vintage Photograph
By Catherine Opie
Located in Surfside, FL
CATHERINE OPIE (b. 1961, OH), SIGNED Vintage limited edition Photograph Born in Sandusky, OH, Catherine Opie received a BFA from San Francisco Art Institute and an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts. Opie's work has been exhibited throughout the United States, Europe, and Japan: The Walker Art Center, Minneopolis, MN; St. Louis Art Museum, MO; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; The Photographers' Gallery, London, UK; Regen Projects, Los Angeles, CA; Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, UK; Studio Guenzani, Milan, Italy; and Ginza Art Space, Tokyo, Japan. She is currently a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, CA. Catherine Opie has become known for her photographic portraits of gay communities and American urban landscapes ranging from large color images of Beverly Hills and Bel Air homes to small jewel-like silver gelatin prints of the Los Angeles freeways. Moving from the territory of the body to the structure of the city and its surrounding landscape, Opie is engaged in what curator and writer, Joshua Decter describes as "cultural portraiture". Her subject matters vary from the Minneapolis/St. Paul vernacular landscape of skyways, to large-format images of ice-fishing houses and portraits of a clan of surfers who await the perfect wave. As such, Opie has become one of the nation's most important photographers today documenting the American scene through regional landscapes and cultural portraiture. Since the prominent debut of her classically composed but often shocking images capturing Los Angeles's gay subculture, Opie has continued to explore the rich terrain of cultural portraiture and the documentary tradition in America. In its compelling clarity and inherent variation, her work reveals a deeply personal commitment to the dignity of her subjects. SELECT RECENT SOLO EXHIBITIONS: 2016 'Catherine Opie: Portraits', Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA (1/30 - 5/22) 'Catherine Opie: 700 Nimes Road', MoCA Pacific Design Center, West Hollywood, CA (1/23 - 5/8) 'Catherine Opie: 700 Nimes Road', Lehmann Maupin, New York NY (1/14 - 2/27) 'Catherine Opie: Portraits and Landscapes', Lehmann Maupin, New York NY (1/14 - 2/27) 2015 'Storylines: Contemporary Art at the Guggenheim' (group exhibition), Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY 'Catherine Opie: Portraits and Landscapes', Wexner Center for the Arts, Minneapolis, MN 2013 'Catherine Opie', Regen Projects, Los Angeles, CA 2014 'The Gang: Photographs by Catherine Opie', Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, UK 2012 'The Importance of Being Photographed' (group exhibition), University of South Florida (USF) Contemporary Art Museum Institute for Research in Art (IRA), Tampa, FL 'Catherine Opie: High School Football', Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York, NY 'Catherine Opie Photographs Cliff May...
Silver Gelatin