Catherine Opie Documenting Marginalised Voices NPG
Miranda Carroll | Artlyst | 9th March 2026
Admits Opie, “I had such a hard time fitting into the world as a girl”. That interest in identity has carried through into her art career that features photographic portraits of herself and friends, including some in the “leather and dyke scene”. She is not trying to sensationalize or promote a “radical lifestyle”. Instead, she wants to represent, in a “painterly” way, a group who, she argues, are rarely seen in historical portraiture. “Doesn’t everyone have the right to actually be acknowledged in this world?