For more than three decades, Ohio-born, L.A.-based Catherine Opie – whose work is included in museums worldwide and whose venerated photographs range from lesbian families, surfers, Tea Party gatherings and riveting self-portraits, to abstract landscapes of national parks, Boy Scouts and mini-malls, and all revealing aspects of contemporary life and culture – plumbs her own psychological depths only to discover what makes her love work and life.
What historical art figure would you like to have lunch with and why? I would want to go out on the streets with Helen Levitt and make photographs of children throughout New York City, following her and watching her, watching what she looks at. It would mean a lot to me to be a street photographer with Helen Levitt. Then we would have a lovely lunch afterwards talking about what we saw and what we experienced.
What did you purchase with the proceeds from your first sale? My first big gift to myself was a leather jacket. I bought it for myself during the 1995 Whitney Biennial in New York and it’s by Schott New York City. My son [Oliver] has now adopted it and wears it all the time and that makes me happy.
Club Fuck, © Catherine Opie, Courtesy Regen Projects, Los Angeles
What words or phrases do you overuse? “Rhetorical toolbox”; I talk about a toolbox way too much. I think my students literally think that I just carry around an actual toolbox, but I’m always telling them, “make sure you know all the tools in your toolbox.”
How do you know when a work is finished? It’s just a feeling you have, you know? You tweak it, you tweak it, you tweak it, you live with it in the studio, you spend time with it, you live with it, you look at it. Keep coming back to it for about a three or four-month period of time. If you keep coming back to it and you know that it’s working, then it works.
Ellie, © Catherine Opie, Courtesy Regen Projects, Los Angeles
When and where were you happiest? I’m always happy when I’m making a body of work and rediscovering things. That’s always my happy place, behind the camera.
What is your most treasured possession? My 7 by 17 inch Banquet camera made by Keith Canham.
End Thee Insanity, © Catherine Opie, Courtesy Regen Projects, Los Angeles
Where is your ideal escape destination? My house in Three Rivers.
What’s the worst survival job you’ve ever had? When I had just graduated from high school and didn’t have any prospects of going to college, I decided to take a door-to-door sales job of selling photo album Bible combination packages to marines in Oceanside. I wore a red dress and a straw hat and knocked door-to-door when I was 18. The second one was loading trucks in grad school, graveyard shift for UPS to get myself through Cal Arts.
What TV series from your youth best describes your approach to life? I did watch a lot of TV. I’m from the generation that had a TV in every room so there were a lot of shows. It depends on what we call youth; I think if you really think about youth, the show that I was most obsessed with really was The Brady Bunch.
Demonstration, © Catherine Opie, Courtesy Regen Projects, Los Angeles
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? I suppose that if I could have the body that I’ve always wanted to have versus being large, that would be one thing that I would actually appreciate being able to change that I worked at my whole adult life, but that at 62 I’ve decided to have peace with.
What is your most treasured memory? Meeting Oliver for the first time
What makes you smile? Oliver makes me smile.
Angela Schierl, © Catherine Opie, Courtesy Regen Projects, Los Angeles
What makes you cry? Sappy TV commercials—sometimes I just start crying.
What is your go-to drink when you toast to a sale? I don’t really toast a sale, I usually just go “High five! Yeah, that’s great, fantastic!” but I don’t really celebrate sales like that. It’s more toasting with a good Margarita when I finish a new body of work.
After an all-nighter, what’s your breakfast of champions? An all-nighter makes me think about my San Francisco days. We would probably go to Hamburger Mary’s and get a glass of orange juice, coffee, and a traditional American breakfast with bacon and toast and eggs and hash browns.
Catherine Millie, © Catherine Opie, Courtesy Regen Projects, Los Angeles
Who inspires you? Oh, so many people, can’t pick one.
What’s your best quality? Kindness.
What’s your biggest flaw? How dyslexic I am, and how when I want to speak publicly, words don’t necessarily come, or they come out backwards. I find that so frustrating, because I know that my mind actually works but it can’t work in the way that I necessarily want it to.
Club Fuck, © Catherine Opie, Courtesy Regen Projects, Los Angeles
What is your current state of mind? At peace.
What do you consider your greatest achievement? Living until 62.
Fake Sleeping, © Catherine Opie, Courtesy Regen Projects, Los Angeles
If you were to die and come back as a person or thing, what would it be? A dog.
Cover image: Catherine Opie, photo by Heather Rasmussen, Courtesy Regen Projects, Los Angeles; all images © Catherine Opie, Courtesy Regen Projects, Los Angeles. Opie’s exhibition, Holding Blue, is at Regen Projects through July 3, 2026.
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