Beverly Hills Series
"I'm kind of a twisted social documentary photographer"
Catherine Opie always understands the surface of things - whether the extravagantly decorated bodies of her friends, or the facades of buildings in her local community - as expressive of the individual within. Her move in 1995 to seemingly formal, architectural subjects was an unexpected departure, yet entirely consistent with her concerns as an artist. 'My work is always close to home. It's always about my surroundings and the way I wander through the world,' she says, 'It is about how communities begin to form and how people try to change themselves.' The 'Houses and Landscapes' are pictures of houses, and at the same time, portraits of the invisible individuals who occupy them. Shot head-on, these homes in middle-class LA suburbia have been 'personalised' in surprising ways by their inhabitants, while remaining firmly barricaded from the outside world.
I find this collection of Opie's very interesting due to the extravagance of the photographic matter.
The pictures are of an expensive residential housing in the heart Beverly Hills. The highly
regarded posh area of Los Angeles, where no one knows their neighbours and the stars of the world reside
to make LA seemingly the glamour capital of the world. The colour print does a lot for the picture it really
emphasises on the beauty of the subject matter. The feature which instantly grabs your
attention when looking at this particular print initially is the amazing doorway maybe due to the vast height but also
due to the fact you just wouldn't see something like that closer to home, the fascination of the alien feeling
to how it looks. Opie has lived in the US all her life but has moved across states maybe the heart of the picture
is to draw attention to this amazing door, as she also felt alien to such beauty and class in regards a simple
structure of a residential doorway and wanting others to feel the same affect that she had when first looking at the
house.
Similar to the picture above I feel the main feature Opie wanted in this piece is the superb structure of the
doorway, the archway often associated to importance it's something which is seen often in architecture of great, expensive
valuable and historical context not something you see in your average American household building. Similar to the above picture the
entrance to the housing is situated in the centre of the picture automatically an area where the viewers' eye would lead to.
The composition is superb and is greatly helped with the inclusion of the small garden area at the front of the picture the
basis of the composition. The symmetrical feeling that is associated with the rest gives a great chance to look at each and
every section of the picture, it's very pleasing on the eye and the colour features enhance that feeling. The sky at the top
and garden area at the bottom, the respective blue and green give the clostaphobic feeling to where Opie wants your eye to
lead to when first looking at this picture.
This picture in this collection is one of my favourites the subject matter is of high importance to the personal liking of the piece, but the
composition is also of great value in regards to favourtism. She mixes the elements that are in the pictures well to give
it a strong feel. The mixture of the trees in the background to the hedgerow at the front of the picture is complemented by the strong
inclusion of the house running along the middle a breathtaking architectural feeling which is captured by Opie in including the heart of
the house. The great inclusion of the symmetrical flower pots I feel promotes a superb feeling on irony. The perfect little house, in the perfect
area, with the perfect little flowers pots in exactly the right symmetrical position. I think her feelings were of resent in some ways to how
some people could be so lucky to have such a superb extravagant house , which only some people could dream of, but for the limited
few such as the owners of this house it's reality and milking the fact of high class is a fun and every day opportunity.
The superb strange looking architecture in this piece is what makes it so interesting. The household almost doesn't look American it looks
very much like something you would find in Spain or a similar area. The plain brick work I feel gives it that feelings, Opie has caught the
sun light on the brickwork which brings it out to the viewer initially a clever use of photographic depth of field. The superb positioning of the natural elements on the sides of the picture
gives the piece a great sense of balance and control one of Opies' most important and successful aspects to her work. Every single piece of
her work shows control balance and a great sense of pleasantness. If she didn't look at herself as a perfectionist when it comes to composition
of her work I'm sure there are millions who would. Yet again, a major influence in this complete series of pictures the entrance to the house is
in the centre of the picture. This actuall picture is dissimilar to the rest in regards to the doorway isn't all that interesting but there are other elements
which steal the lime light, like the amazing capture of shade and the perfect looking day in the sky line.
In regards to extra-ordinary architectural design this piece is certainly up there at the top when it comes to amazing features.
There is a question being posed I feel, is this the entrance to the house? Or is it the gate of the house to the entrance? Such an extravagant
looking building poses the question by itself. The amazing looking sculptural feeling you get from the doorway initially leads you to look
for a long time at that section obviously why Opie again has situated this section, not very arguably the most interesting
in the centre of the piece. The symmetrical feeling again resides in the nature she has included on each side. The similar position of the camera
she uses a front looking shot in this series of the work gives it very much an estate agent feel. The complimentary picture we see in our day to day lives
of households being advertised the majority of the time un affordable, but in this case a lifetime away from ever being affordable.
This piece is certainly out of the ordinary in regards to keeping in line with the series of pictures there's no household in sight
no amazing architecture abd
no sublime, dream like Californian sky line. It shows the mountainy feeling which does surround LA when moving into surrounding areas. If experienced it gives the
feel of protection, comfort, cosy if you like in regards to being faced with an ocean on one side and mountainous regions all around you on the other.
The feeling from this piece is very much a touristic nature and it's not one her strongest pieces by far but it shows in some aspects that the upper
class are often in a divide from the lower class, the mountainy features implementing the feeling of divide, segregation, classes and their places in the
community. The rich from the poor, the good from the bad. Opie's picture isn't of great composition or quality, but leaving this picture to the last I feel
really sums up her feelings on this series of work, what she meant to show, what she feels, why she did it. To emphasis issues in the social context in such
differing life styles.
|
