For Catherine Opie, "Without representation, there is no visibility"

With a distinctly empathetic gaze, Catherine Opie’s Portraits series (1993–7) captures the vibrancy and humanity of her Queer community. Inspired by sixteenth-century painter Hans Holbein the Younger, Opie constructs a royal family of her friends to challenge normative views of gender and sexuality. Sitters are depicted frontally against a solid background. For Opie, the visual language of courtly portraiture offers a rhetoric of liberation: “There was an equality to [Holbein’s] paintings—they weren’t demigod portraits, they were just incredibly detailed and real.” It is testament to Opie’s eye for nuance and the trust she builds with her sitters that she brings out such psychological complexity. Opie's photography redefines portraiture, probing the complex questions of who we are, how we present ourselves and why representation matters. Portraiture has always been about “being seen”—and a collaboration between sitter and portraitist to this end—but Opie has re-evaluated it as inclusive, intimate and reciprocal. “Chloe” (1993) is reproduced from Catherine Opie: To Be Seen, published to accompany the eponymous exhibition on view at the National Portrait Gallery, London, through May 31, 2026. The publication features more than 100 color images and a tactile quarter-bound cover, designed in close consultation with the artist.

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Published by National Portrait Gallery, 2026

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