Oral history interview with Catherine Opie
odd: label: General
content: Originally recorded as 7 digital sound files. Duration is 5 hr., 17 min.
name: label: Interviewee
content: Opie, Catherine, 1961-
label: Interviewer
content: Drohojowska-Philp, Hunter
label: Names
content: Burleigh, Julie
label: Names
content: Regen, Shaun Caley
label: Names
content: Regen, Stuart, 1959-1998
place: label: Place
content: California -- San Francisco -- Description and Travel
topic: label: Occupation
content: Photographers -- California -- Los Angeles
label: Topic
content: Women artists
label: Topic
content: Artists (LGBTQ)
label: Topic
content: Lesbian artists
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators.
creator: label: Interviewee
content: Opie, Catherine, 1961-
label: Interviewer
content: Drohojowska-Philp, Hunter
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Catherine Opie (1961- ) is an artist and professor in Los Angeles, California. Hunter Drohojowska-Philp is a writer and art historian in Los Angeles, California.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 7 Items (Sound recording: 7 sound files (5 hr., 17 min.), digital, wav)
label: Extent
content: 112 Pages (Transcript)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 2012 August 13-27
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.opie12
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Pages
label: Type
content: Interviews
label: Type
content: Sound recordings
altformavail: label: Existence and Location of Copies
content: Transcript available online.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Interviews
label: Genre/Form
content: Sound recordings
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: An interview of Catherine Opie conducted 2012 August 13-27, by Hunter Drohojowska-Philp, for the Archives of American Art, at Opie's home and studio in Los Angeles, California.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Opie discusses her childhood in Sandusky, Ohio, moving to California, and introduction to photography; her life in San Francisco and its role in her formulation of sexuality and identity; the importance of identity within her work, especially that of the queer community; the role of architecture and her landscape paintings as metaphor for the queer community and the search for identity; the role of reconceptualization in her work, leading to the ever-changing nature of her works, including comparisons between her portraiture and her landscape photography; her influences and her moniker of the "American photographer" Opie also recalls her partner, painter Julie Burleigh; gallery owners Stuart and Shaun Regen; members of her community and subjects of her portraiture, and others.