Q&A: Catherine Opie and Sam Richardson
In this interview with the New York Times Magazine, Arts professor Catherine Opie and alumna Sam Richardson discuss their unconventional, intergenerational mentorship-turned-friendship.
"Though they started off as teacher and student, Catherine Opie and Sam Richardson have forged a bond that transcends institutional hierarchies.
From left: SAM RICHARDSON, photographer and educator, 33; and CATHERINE OPIE, artist, 60. Photographed at Opie’s studio in Lincoln Heights, Los Angeles, on March 5, 2021 Catherine Opie: I met Sam over a series of phone calls in 2018 when she was considering U.C.L.A. for grad school. I was the head of the photography program, and there were only three spots. When I look at a potential student’s work, I want to see that they’re having a conversation with ideas, and with the history of photography. Hopefully, I can be another voice in that conversation.
Sam Richardson: Cathy was kind, open and very present. She asked me about myself and my practice, and we discovered we had a lot in common. I was introduced to her work as an undergrad, when a professor told me I had to go see her 2008-09 retrospective at the Guggenheim. I remember being overwhelmed by the honest self-representation in Cathy’s “Being and Having” (1991), a group of 13 portraits of Cathy’s friends in the queer community wearing fake mustaches. I felt both confronted and at home — it was the first time art made me cry.
C.O.: There are many photographers who eschew tenderness, who believe that you have to shock the viewer — often by creating derogatory images. Sam’s work has an overall quality of humanity, and that’s what I strongly believe in as an artist."— Kerry Manders, Apr. 12, 2021
This post is an excerpt. Read the full article on the New York Times Magazine website.
Read more about Catherine Opie.
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