In Conversation: Catherine Opie and Jonathan D. Katz

Photographer Catherine Opie is joined by art historian and academic Jonathan D. Katz to discuss her work. Opie's political portraiture and documentary photography has consistently reflected on her interest in gender, identity and community. From her breakthrough series Being and Having (1991), which portrayed her friends from the queer, leather and BDSM communities on the West Coast, to images that unpack the gloss of American culture, highlighting racial and class divides, Opie’s body of work is a searing portrait of contemporary America.

Her work has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions, including at the Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Oslo (2017), Los Angeles County Museum of Art (2016), Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool (2014) and the Guggenheim Museum, New York (2008).

Jonathan D. Katz is an art historian, curator and queer activist.