Skip to main content

Catherine Opie Black and White Photography

American, b. 1961

American photographer Catherine Opie has not only documented the cultural shift of the last few decades, she has also lived it. Once an outsider shooting her own “fringe community,” Opie is celebrated today for her evocative black and white and color photography and her confrontational examination of gender conventions. Through her lens, she investigates themes of individual identity and community.

Opie was born in Ohio in 1961 and spent her childhood in the Midwest. When she was 13, her family moved to California, where she set up a darkroom in the spare bedroom of the new house and started taking photographs. She received her BFA from San Francisco Art Institute in 1985, followed by an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts in 1988.

Opie started gaining recognition in the 1990s for her intimate studio portraits featuring other lesbian, gay and transgender artists and personal friends. Harkening back to traditional Renaissance-style portrait paintings, the photographs helped increase the visibility of marginalized communities as the fight for LGBTQ rights took shape

Opie has embraced a range of additional subject matter. She traveled across the United States to photograph widely varying but quintessentially American groups, from high school football players to members of a staunchly conservative political movement. She documented ice-fishing sheds in Minnesota, the 2008 US presidential inauguration, the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival and anything and everything that caught her interest. For 2015’s 700 Nimes Road (DelMonico Books/Prestel), Opie trained her eclectic lens on the house and personal belongings of Elizabeth Taylor

Opie has been teaching at the University of California, Los Angeles, since 2001 and has garnered numerous prestigious awards for her work, including the Women's Caucus for Art Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2008, the Guggenheim’s “Catherine Opie: American Photographer” exhibition spanned four floors and attracted thousands of people every day until it closed. 

Despite her recognition and accolades, Opie continues to prefer subversive imagery. "Photographs are different these days," she told Introspective magazine in 2020. "The ones I like best are from those people who are bearing witness, like images of the protestors."

On 1stDibs, find original Catherine Opie photography and prints.

to
1
Overall Width
to
Overall Height
to
1
1
1
3
1,127
832
687
592
1
Artist: Catherine Opie
Curators, Catherine Opie Signed Vintage Photograph
By Catherine Opie
Located in Surfside, FL
CATHERINE OPIE (b. 1961, OH), SIGNED Vintage limited edition Photograph Born in Sandusky, OH, Catherine Opie received a BFA from San Francisco Art Institute and an MFA from the Cali...
Category

20th Century Catherine Opie Black and White Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Related Items
"No Time" Black White Photography 39" x 39" in Edition 1/3 by Olha Stepanian
By Olha Stepanian
Located in Culver City, CA
"No Time" Black White Photography 39" x 39" in Edition 1/3 by Olha Stepanian Printed on Epson Professional Paper Signed and numbered by the artist Not framed. Ships in a tub...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist Catherine Opie Black and White Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper

New World Order Signed Limited Edition
By BATIK
Located in London, GB
New World Order by BATIK Satirical pop art artwork featuring Vladimir Putin, VP J.D. Vance, Donald Trump and Elon Musk in WW2 war rooms. BATIK is a London based fine artist and im...
Category

2010s Pop Art Catherine Opie Black and White Photography

Materials

Black and White, Archival Pigment

"Genesis" Ballet Photography 36" x 27" in Edition 5/25 by Yevgeniy Repiashenko
By Yevgeniy Repiashenko
Located in Culver City, CA
"Genesis" Ballet Photography 36" x 27" in Edition 5/25 by Yevgeniy Repiashenko Photography Year photo was taken: 2019 Unframed - ships in a tube This picture is a part of Spiri...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Catherine Opie Black and White Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

Medium Sized Limited Edition Photographic Art Print "Preparing"
Located in Cape Town, ZA
A limited edition (out of 25) black and white photographic print measuring 20" x 27.75". Unframed. Framing options are available at an additional cost - contact us for options.
Category

2010s Contemporary Catherine Opie Black and White Photography

Materials

Archival Paper, Giclée

Limited Edition Photographic Art Print "Day Dreaming in Paris"
Located in Cape Town, ZA
A limited edition (out of 25) black and white photographic print. Framed with a black or white box frame and floated to the backboard. The dimensions of 33.5 x 47.2 cm is that of the...
Category

2010s Contemporary Catherine Opie Black and White Photography

Materials

Archival Paper, Giclée

Audrey Atomic by BATIK
By BATIK
Located in London, GB
Audrey Atomic by BATIK Pop Artwork of the iconic Audrey Hepburn during filming of Breakfast At Tiffany's. BATIK is an increasingly collectable pop artist currently living and wor...
Category

2010s Modern Catherine Opie Black and White Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

Limited Edition Photographic Art Print "Filling the Manhole"
Located in Cape Town, ZA
A limited edition (out of 25) black and white photographic print. Framed with a black or white box frame and floated to the backboard. The dimensions of 33.5 x 47.2 cm is that of the...
Category

2010s Contemporary Catherine Opie Black and White Photography

Materials

Archival Paper, Giclée

“Inside Out 1” Black White Photography 24" x 36" in Ed. of 7 by Brian Ziff
By Brian Ziff
Located in Culver City, CA
“Inside Out 1” Black White Photography 24" x 36" in Ed. of 7 by Brian Ziff Giclee (Archival Ink) Print on Canson Platine Fibre Rag From "Park Drive" series Brian Ziff is a ...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist Catherine Opie Black and White Photography

Materials

Archival Ink, Rag Paper, Giclée

Untitled (firemen and chair)
By Lee Friedlander
Located in Denton, TX
Jim Dine and Lee Friedlander From the Portfolio: Photographs and Etchings Lee Friedlander & Jim Dine, published by Petersberg Press 1969 Signed and numbered (Edition of 20/75) Paper ...
Category

1960s Post-Modern Catherine Opie Black and White Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Untitled (firemen and chair)
Untitled (firemen and chair)
$5,500
H 18 in W 29.75 in D 0.1 in
Marilyn Monroe An Appreciation original vintage Leo Castelli Gallery print Lt Ed
By Eve Arnold
Located in New York, NY
This gorgeous offset lithograph poster was created on the occasion of the Eva Arnold exhibition, Marilyn Monroe: An Appreciation, at the famed Leo Castelli Gallery in 1987 - Castelli...
Category

1980s Pop Art Catherine Opie Black and White Photography

Materials

Offset, Lithograph

"Jefferson Memorial" by Carrie Mae Weems Black and White, Photograph, Figure)
By Carrie Mae Weems
Located in New York, NY
This archival pigment print on Canson paper comes directly from the publisher, Lincoln Center Editions. It is signed and numbered en verso by the artist. It is in excellent condition and has never been framed. Note: The image of the framed print is for reference purposes only. Carrie Mae Weems (b. 1953) is an American artist whose extensive body of work investigates cultural identity, sexism, class, political systems, and the consequences of power. Weems is widely recognized for her revolutionary approach to the expression of narratives about women, people of color and working-class communities, “conjuring lush art...
Category

2010s Contemporary Catherine Opie Black and White Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

New World Order Signed Limited Edition
By BATIK
Located in London, GB
New World Order by BATIK Satirical pop art artwork featuring Vladimir Putin, VP J.D. Vance, Donald Trump and Elon Musk in WW2 war rooms. BATIK is a London based fine artist and im...
Category

2010s Pop Art Catherine Opie Black and White Photography

Materials

Black and White, Archival Pigment

Previously Available Items
Still from the Modernist
By Catherine Opie
Located in New York, NY
This photograph by Catherine Opie was produced in an edition of 70 in 2022, and is offered by CLAMP in New York City.
Category

2010s Contemporary Catherine Opie Black and White Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

Curators, Catherine Opie Signed Vintage Photograph
By Catherine Opie
Located in Surfside, FL
CATHERINE OPIE (b. 1961, OH), SIGNED Vintage limited edition Photograph Born in Sandusky, OH, Catherine Opie received a BFA from San Francisco Art Inst...
Category

20th Century Catherine Opie Black and White Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Curators, Catherine Opie Signed Vintage Photograph
By Catherine Opie
Located in Surfside, FL
CATHERINE OPIE (b. 1961, OH), SIGNED Vintage limited edition Photograph Born in Sandusky, OH, Catherine Opie received a BFA from San Francisco Art Institute and an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts. Opie's work has been exhibited throughout the United States, Europe, and Japan: The Walker Art Center, Minneopolis, MN; St. Louis Art Museum, MO; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; The Photographers' Gallery, London, UK; Regen Projects, Los Angeles, CA; Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, UK; Studio Guenzani, Milan, Italy; and Ginza Art Space, Tokyo, Japan. She is currently a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, CA. Catherine Opie has become known for her photographic portraits of gay communities and American urban landscapes ranging from large color images of Beverly Hills and Bel Air homes to small jewel-like silver gelatin prints of the Los Angeles freeways. Moving from the territory of the body to the structure of the city and its surrounding landscape, Opie is engaged in what curator and writer, Joshua Decter describes as "cultural portraiture". Her subject matters vary from the Minneapolis/St. Paul vernacular landscape of skyways, to large-format images of ice-fishing houses and portraits of a clan of surfers who await the perfect wave. As such, Opie has become one of the nation's most important photographers today documenting the American scene through regional landscapes and cultural portraiture. Since the prominent debut of her classically composed but often shocking images capturing Los Angeles's gay subculture, Opie has continued to explore the rich terrain of cultural portraiture and the documentary tradition in America. In its compelling clarity and inherent variation, her work reveals a deeply personal commitment to the dignity of her subjects. SELECT RECENT SOLO EXHIBITIONS: 2016 'Catherine Opie: Portraits', Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA (1/30 - 5/22) 'Catherine Opie: 700 Nimes Road', MoCA Pacific Design Center, West Hollywood, CA (1/23 - 5/8) 'Catherine Opie: 700 Nimes Road', Lehmann Maupin, New York NY (1/14 - 2/27) 'Catherine Opie: Portraits and Landscapes', Lehmann Maupin, New York NY (1/14 - 2/27) 2015 'Storylines: Contemporary Art at the Guggenheim' (group exhibition), Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY 'Catherine Opie: Portraits and Landscapes', Wexner Center for the Arts, Minneapolis, MN 2013 'Catherine Opie', Regen Projects, Los Angeles, CA 2014 'The Gang: Photographs by Catherine Opie', Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, UK 2012 'The Importance of Being Photographed' (group exhibition), University of South Florida (USF) Contemporary Art Museum Institute for Research in Art (IRA), Tampa, FL 'Catherine Opie: High School Football', Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York, NY 'Catherine Opie Photographs Cliff May...
Category

20th Century Catherine Opie Black and White Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Catherine Opie black and white photography for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Catherine Opie black and white photography available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by Catherine Opie in archival pigment print, pigment print, silver gelatin print and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 21st century and contemporary and is mostly associated with the contemporary style. Not every interior allows for large Catherine Opie black and white photography, so small editions measuring 10 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Cody S. Brothers, Steve Miller, and Beth Moon. Catherine Opie black and white photography prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $938 and tops out at $4,500, while the average work can sell for $2,719.

Still Thinking About These?

All Recently Viewed