Since the 1980s, the US photographer has perserved queer lives through portraiture and challenged ideas around the nuclear home in her often touching, shocking works
Since the 1980s, the US photographer has preserved queer lives through portraiture, challenged ideas around the nuclear home and documented moments of solidarity and uncertainty in her work, which is often touching and shocking. As her first survey in Australia opens, she shares the stories behind her most famous photosAll images courtesy of Catherine Opie, and Regen Projects and Lehmann Maupin
Photograph: © Catherine Opie/Courtesy Regen Projects, Los Angeles and Lehmann Maupin, New York, Hong Kong, London, and SeoulJesse is my best friend’s niece. This photo made me want to do children’s portraits. I photographed Jesse again when she was 22 as part of a body of work about iconic Butch dykes, because Jesse had come out then.I love working with kids. I was a camp counsellor and was going to be a kindergarten teacher.
I bought an RV and traveled through the US for three-and-a-half months. I would go into towns and lecture as an artist to pay for gas. I was shooting with an 8x10 camera then because Moma’s photography collection at the time included lots of contemporary photographers who were shooting 8x10 – there was an incredible continuation of visibility of heterosexuality in that work and I wanted to use the same format to photograph lesbians, to create that history.
Photograph: © Catherine Opie/Courtesy Regen Projects, Los Angeles and Lehmann Maupin, New York, Hong Kong, London, and SeoulThelma Golden runs the Studio Museum in Harlem and has probably done more for young curators and artists of colour than any other person. This portrait is of her and her husband Duro Olowu, who is an amazing designer who lives in London. I wanted to do a royal portrait of them so I shot it in London.
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