Catherine Opie (b. 1961) was inspired from the early age of nine by photographer Lewis Hine, who documented the plight of child laborers in the early 20th century. As a child she began photographing her family, friends, and neighbors, the start of her ongoing focus on community. She has said, “basically what I did then, and I still do is wander around with my camera to describe my relationship to the world and where I live.” Opie seeks to capture the cities and people of contemporary America, documenting political movements, queer subcultures, and urban transformation. Her oeuvre captures a portrait of our time, and her work resonates with formal art historical notions of “the way things should look.” Opie received her BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute (1985), her MFA from CalArts (1988), and since 2001 has taught at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her first solo exhibition was held at New York's 494 Gallery in 1991, but she first garnered widespread attention following her inclusion in the 1995 Whitney Biennial. She has received many awards, including the President’s Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Women’s Caucus for Art (2009); United States Artists Fellowship (2006); Larry Aldrich Award (2004); and the CalArts Alpert Award in the Arts (2003). Solo museum exhibitions of Opie's work have been organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (1997–98); ArtPace, San Antonio (2000); The Photographers' Gallery, London (2000); Saint Louis Art Museum (2000); Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2002); Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, Connecticut (2006); and Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (2006). Her photographs have also been shown in numerous group exhibitions, including the Whitney Biennial 1995 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 1995); Rrose is a Rrose is a Rrose: Gender Performance in Photography (Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1997); Whitney Biennial 2004 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 2004) and many more. Opie lives and works in Los Angeles.