Meeting Catherine Opie, your favourite photographer's favourite photographer

As a major retrospective of Catherine Opie’s work opens, Lotte Jeffs reflects on a memorable encounter with the artist and shares some of the insights and inspiration from their chat

A few years ago I interviewed the artist Catherine Opie for C Magazine. As a big fan of her work, it was a dream commission. A queer parent myself, Opie's depictions of family hold deep resonance for me. On the eve of the National Portrait Gallery’s new retrospective of the photographer's work, To Be Seen, I wanted to share a few of the most impactful moments from our chat.

Catherine Opie told me her work is simply “about place and identity and how they inform each other.” She added: “I’m not interested in photography as nostalgia, I’m interested in photography as a place of memory, as a placeholder for us throughout history.”

She’s well known for documenting queer lives, and she told me she continues to be “excited” by what her work means to young LGBTQ people who will often come up to her to say, ‘“I saw your work in the Guggenheim and it changed my life – I was able to talk to my parents about who I was as a person.’”

I asked what she has learned most about the U.S. in the time that she’s spent documenting it. “How incredibly optimistic I am, and how heartbreaking this country is, time and time again.”

She reflected on community and identity throughout our time together and said. “I hope to provoke the sense of humanity, and for people to understand that difference is actually a strength.”

Opie has photographed many of her friends as well as subjects she doesn’t know. I asked if it was different capturing the personalities of strangers to working with close friends. She told me: “I don’t have any preconceived ideas of who they are, as a person. There is a different ebb and flow — one is bearing witness, and one is recognizing this very internal relationship of either friendship or somebody who I completely admire, such as David Hockney.”

“Growing up, I felt displaced always, and unpopular”, Opie admitted during the hour-long chat, “Photography was a way that allowed me to make friends and have something really special that I could give out to the world. It’s like my little superpower. I spent all night in the darkroom so I could go back to school the next day with a stack of prints.”

Back when we spoke a few years ago she told me her priorities were shifting, and she focused on using her art and influence to give back to lower-income communities, volunteering in schools and helping children in South and East L.A. with their college essays. Now, her priorities have shifted once again as she arrives in London to launch her first large museum exhibition in Britain, featuring works going back to the 1990s. For our UK community – don’t miss the show, running until 31 May.