26 Facts About Catherine Opie

Catherine Sue Opie was born on 1961 and is an American fine art photographer and educator.

Catherine Opie is known for her portraits exploring the Los Angeles leather-dyke community.

Catherine Opie's work is held in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art and the Solomon R Guggenheim Museum, and she has won awards including the United States Artists Fellowship and the President's Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Women's Caucus for Art.

Catherine Opie spent her early childhood in Ohio and was influenced heavily by photographer Lewis Hine.

Catherine Opie evolved as an artist at age 14 when she created her own darkroom.

Catherine Opie's family moved from Ohio to California in 1975.

Catherine Opie earned a Bachelor of Arts from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1985.

Catherine Opie later received a Master of Fine Arts degree from the California Institute of the Arts in 1988.

In 1988, Catherine Opie moved to Los Angeles, California, and began working as an artist.

Catherine Opie supported herself by accepting a job as a lab technician at the University of California, Irvine.

In 2001, Catherine Opie gave birth to a boy named Oliver through intrauterine insemination.

At the Hammer Museum, Catherine Opie was on the first Artist Council and served on the board of overseers.

Catherine Opie returned in support of the museum's new director, Philippe Vergne, in 2014.

Catherine Opie was on the board of the Andy Warhol Foundation.

Catherine Opie has printed photographs using Chronochrome, Iris prints, Polaroids, and silver photogravure.

Catherine Opie first came to be known with Being and Having and Portraits, which portray queer communities in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Catherine Opie has investigated aspects of community, making portraits of many groups including the LGBT community, surfers, and most recently, high school football players.

Catherine Opie is interested in how identities are shaped by our surrounding architecture.

Catherine Opie's work is informed by her identity as an out lesbian.

Catherine Opie's work explores how the idea of family varies between straight and LGBTQ communities.

Catherine Opie has referenced problems of visibility, where the reference to Renaissance paintings in her images declares the individuals as saints or characters.

In 2011, Catherine Opie photographed the home of the actress Elizabeth Taylor in Bel Air, Los Angeles.

Catherine Opie took 3,000 images for the project; 129 comprised the completed study.

Catherine Opie's first film, The Modernist, is a tribute to French filmmaker Chris Marker's 1962 classic La Jetee.

Catherine Opie's teaching career began in 2001 at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Catherine Opie has taught photography workshops at Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass Village, CO and Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, MA.