Catherine Opie: Sandusky, Ohio | "Exclusive" | Art21

[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.