Catherine Opie on Beauty
Self Portrait / Nursing 2004 © Catherine Opie, Courtesy Regen Projects, Los Angeles and Lehmann Maupin, New York, Hong Kong, and Seoul
Catherine Opie is a prominent figure of the leather dyke community. Photos like Dyke and Self-Portrait/Pervert have been featured in museums like the Guggenheim and the MOMA. Photography is a vital source of resilience and celebration for queer and trans communities, and household names such as Opie have laid a foundation for new photographers to build upon. Opie remains dedicated to reframing masculinity and female beauty, as well as the basic concepts we coin ‘beautiful.’
In an article that Opie recently wrote, she details her career-long commitment to celebrating different forms of beauty. “I'm a self-identified butch dyke, I'm a big woman,” she explains, “and even though I might struggle with my body, I still find it really beautiful in terms of what it can do.” Often, butch lesbians are considered too masculine for beauty. Adding female body standards on top of that can result in feelings of dysphoria and self-loathing. Opie maintains a broader concept of beauty in each of her memorable photography projects.
Self Portrait / Cutting 1993 © Catherine Opie, Courtesy Regen Projects, Los Angeles and Lehmann Maupin, New York, Hong Kong, and Seoul
Her Self-Portrait trilogy from the 90s is filled with subversions of beauty. Self-Portrait/Cutting features a domestic scene cut into Opie’s back. Self-Portrait/Pervert features the word pervert cut into her chest as she sports leather BDSM wear. The third addition, Self-Portrait/Nursing is much softer, as Opie nurses her baby Oliver in all her butch glory. On the topic of motherhood, Opie explains “People in my community were shocked when I became pregnant. It didn't seem like butch women like me birthed children. But, I knew I always wanted to be a mom.”
The first two portraits convey how binary thinking and gay slurs can harm a queer subject. The third one destabilizes the way people typically envision motherhood. Opie’s portrait is more than a petite, submissive, feminine woman, too modest to reveal her breasts while nursing, which is how many people would visualize the portrait of a mother. This portrait shows resistance towards assigning ideas about the way a mother should look.
Rusty 2008 © Catherine Opie, Courtesy Regen Projects, Los Angeles and Lehmann Maupin, New York, Hong Kong, and Seoul
Opie has not stuck exclusively to women, either. Her high school football portraits show intimate shots of the players in their uniforms. Rusty shows a beautiful portrait of a broad football player, with long hair sweeping down the sides of his face. She also took Guillermo and Joaquin, a picture of her daughter’s husband holding his son, in the same fashion as Self Portrait/Nursing. In the same way Opie’s nursing portrait shows a different view on motherhood, this portrait shows a delicate, tender view of fatherhood. By capturing the tenderness of men and exploring masculinity, Opie broadened conversations on beauty.
She has also shot a variety of age groups. Often times, elderly subjects are pushed aside, as photographers search for the ‘freshest’ thing in beauty. “Youth culture,” Opie says, “isn't the only important area to explore in beauty and fashion. It's important to represent the transitions of a person's body throughout their life.” If our concept of beauty relies on youthfulness, we will keep struggling to celebrate our bodies in the latter half of our lives.
Guillermo & Joaquin 2013 © Catherine Opie, Courtesy Regen Projects, Los Angeles and Lehmann Maupin, New York, Hong Kong, and Seoul
Throughout Catherine Opie’s career, she has approached normative beauty with skepticism. From queerness and fluidity, to masculinity and old age, she has bigger ideas about who we consider a beauty queen. Self-confidence and happiness go hand in hand, making it vital to expand our version of beautiful past voguish, feminine trends. In simpler words, beauty needs more muses.
You can find Catherine Opie’s Instagram here, where she is currently documenting her experience in quarantine during COVID-19. You can find the gallery that represents her, Regen Projects, here.
