[Catherine Opie: Sandusky, Ohio]
I grew up in Sandusky, Ohio--
long-time family roots there--
and we left when I was thirteen
to move to Poway, California.
I know, isn't that amazing?
Look at that, with Con Agra.
It's such a great plant.
...hello car, I see you...
But I love the piles of coal.
The kind of wandering I'm doing today
is like looking at that kind of
fine art Americana image.
Juxtaposition.
Signage is always good.
Like, seeing the leprechaun, [LAUGHS]
with the fish fry sign.
[camera shutter clicks]
Sometimes I'll see a group of kids
that I'll ask if I can do a portrait of them, but...
rarely.
Okay, ready?
[camera shutter clicks]
Okay, now a regular portrait, okay?
Just standing there. Like that.
Yeah, that's good.
[camera shutter clicks]
Right here, right here with me.
[camera shutter clicks]
You want your portrait?
Come here.
Alright ready? Another one?
When you're a kid, you're outside all day, and...
I would just lay for hours in the corn field
looking up at the sky,
and spent a lot of time by myself.
Alright! Where do you guys live?
[BOY #1] I live in East Market.
[OPIE] East Market?
[BOY #2] I live on East Washington.
[OPIE] Okay!
It's curious that I end up
spending so much time by myself
now, photographing as well,
because it's very similar to
how I was when I was a kid--
was, there was a lot of alone time.
There was a lot of hanging out with friends,
but also,
I was one of those kids that liked to
wander off by myself.
So the myth is, there's a silver dollar
in the cornerstone.
It's the only thing, like, really left of my...
my grandfather and my dad's company.
[INTERVIEWER, OFF CAMERA] They built this building?
[OPIE] Yeah.
Going back to Sandusky has been really interesting
because I've been allowed to
find this place of joy again,
where it was really hard for me to be as a kid.
Literally, I used the landscape to change
my emotional state,
and I think that that, kind of,
comes up for me
in relationship to often how I photograph a place.
My father, besides doing O-P Craft,
he had the largest political campaign collection
in American history,
which is all in the Smithsonian now.
We had this very rare F.D.R. cast-iron bank
where you'd put a penny in the hand
and it would go into his lap.
I could be a Daughters of the American Revolution--
I could send my paperwork in if I want to.
We're very patriotic, my family.
So I grew up with all this
American memorabilia
around me as a kid,
hanging in our house.
And I think that prevails through my work,
I mean, that's why it was so odd
when the Guggenheim named me
"Catherine Opie, American Photographer."
It was just like,
okay, I guess I'm like,
I might as well just accept this--
that this is part of, you know,
basically what I was taught throughout my childhood
was, like, how important it is
being an American.