Catherine Opie (B. 1961)

'[Catherine] Opie's Potraits celebrate the bravery of her subjects' decisions to craft their own identities in the face of restrictive social norms. At the same time, these images refuse to place community within any explicit critical discourse, despite the significant political implications of such transformations. Representatives of the destabilisation of gender itself, Opie's sitters fell between the cracks of organised political movements...Opie's Portraits series documents this living community and renders visible an otherwise invisible or misunderstood sector of American culture with characteristic respect and compassion'

(N. Trotman quoted in N. Trotman, Catherine Opie: American Photographer, New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 2008-2009, p. 53).