Quiz Make Up

The episode “Change” was very representative of the artist Catherine Opie and her work. Catherine as an artist seemed to have gone through her own transformation of what she thought was important to represent in her photographs. She described herself as a street photographer in the beginning of her career which transformed to more aesthetic landscapes in the mid to late part of her career. Now, it seems that she is returning back to her street artist roots and trying to connect more with the community and other people.

The first set of photographs of different people with tattoos and strange clothing was very interesting because seemed to record the non-mainstream population representing themselves to the world. However, I enjoyed the photographs she was commissioned for by the hospital because it seemed to represent the passage of time and different states of the same location. For example, she took a series of photographs at Lake Erie at different times of the day and under different lighting conditions such as sunrises and sunsets. It seemed appropriate for a hospital setting to show the changing states on a lake as if it represents the natural cycle of life. The one thing I didn’t like about her work was how she was upset that the birds were flying in her photograph. I understand she was trying to make a consistent image, but it seemed unnatural for an artist photographing a landscape to react this way. Finally, I also liked how she was taking pictures of local shopkeepers in her neighborhood which again seems like her attempt to create a historical record of our time.