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[Catherine Opie: Sandusky, Ohio]

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I grew up in Sandusky, Ohio--

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long-time family roots there--

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and we left when I was thirteen

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to move to Poway, California.

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I know, isn't that amazing?

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Look at that, with Con Agra.

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It's such a great plant.

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...hello car, I see you...

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But I love the piles of coal.

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The kind of wandering I'm doing today

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is like looking at that kind of

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fine art Americana image.

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Juxtaposition.

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Signage is always good.

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Like, seeing the leprechaun, [LAUGHS]

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with the fish fry sign.

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[camera shutter clicks]

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Sometimes I'll see a group of kids

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that I'll ask if I can do a portrait of them,[br]but...

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rarely.

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Okay, ready?

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[camera shutter clicks]

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Okay, now a regular portrait, okay?

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Just standing there. Like that.

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Yeah, that's good.

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[camera shutter clicks]

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Right here, right here with me.

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[camera shutter clicks]

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You want your portrait?

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Come here.

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Alright ready? Another one?

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When you're a kid, you're outside all day,[br]and...

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I would just lay for hours in the corn field

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looking up at the sky,

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and spent a lot of time by myself.

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Alright! Where do you guys live?

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[BOY #1] I live in East Market.

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[OPIE] East Market?

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[BOY #2] I live on East Washington.

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[OPIE] Okay!

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It's curious that I end up

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spending so much time by myself

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now, photographing as well,

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because it's very similar to

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how I was when I was a kid--

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was, there was a lot of alone time.

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There was a lot of hanging out with friends,

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but also,

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I was one of those kids that liked to

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wander off by myself.

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So the myth is, there's a silver dollar

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in the cornerstone.

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It's the only thing, like, really left of my...

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my grandfather and my dad's company.

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[INTERVIEWER, OFF CAMERA] They built this[br]building?

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[OPIE] Yeah.

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Going back to Sandusky has been really interesting

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because I've been allowed to

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find this place of joy again,

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where it was really hard for me to be as a[br]kid.

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Literally, I used the landscape to change

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my emotional state,

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and I think that that, kind of,

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comes up for me

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in relationship to often how I photograph[br]a place.

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My father, besides doing O-P Craft,

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he had the largest political campaign collection

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in American history,

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which is all in the Smithsonian now.

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We had this very rare F.D.R. cast-iron bank

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where you'd put a penny in the hand

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and it would go into his lap.

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I could be a Daughters of the American Revolution--

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I could send my paperwork in if I want to.

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We're very patriotic, my family.

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So I grew up with all this

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American memorabilia

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around me as a kid,

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hanging in our house.

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And I think that prevails through my work,

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I mean, that's why it was so odd

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when the Guggenheim named me

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"Catherine Opie, American Photographer."

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It was just like,

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okay, I guess I'm like,

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I might as well just accept this--

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that this is part of, you know,

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basically what I was taught throughout my[br]childhood

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was, like, how important it is

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being an American.