Wednesday Artist: Catherine Opie

Can I get you to look at an image for longer than a second?

~ Catherine Opie

A photographer who says she "likes to stare", Catherine Opie trains her sight on the minority groups and sub-communities of our culture. Her work is intended to "create a platform for people to recognize themselves" and to get viewers to think about such subjects as attitudes, child labor, relationships, social conflicts and inequality, and discrimination. And while she admits she "can be political", she also says her interest is much more anthropological.

Below is another in Louisiana Channel's excellent series of video interviews with artists: "Catherine Opie: A World Beyond Selfies". Interviewed in January 2016 at her Los Angeles, California, studio, Opie discusses the challenges of being a photographer today and her approach to her subjects.

Opie's photographs are exhibited internationally, and her work can be found in numerous collections, including those of the Guggenheim Museum, Hammer Museum, The Israel Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The MacArthur Foundation, Museum of Modern Art, Walker Art Center, Tate Gallery, Whitney Museum, and Yale University Art Gallery.

Opie currently is a professor of photography in the art department at UCLA.

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Catherine Opie at Art 21, Guggenheim Museum, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, NPR, Regen Projects