User:Saylornn/gap analysis

Gap analysis

 * What is the title of the article in which you identified a gap. If no article exists at all, what should the title be?

Catherine Opie


 * Document the gap you found, describe how you identified it, and analyze its impact on knowledge.

Catherine Opie does have a Wikipedia page. However there are a couple of noticeable aspects of her life that are missing. First of all, there isn’t a picture of Catherine on her page. A simple Google search brings up many pictures of her and could easily be added to her page so she can have the basic right of presenting herself. In addition, many of Opie photographs focus on LBGTQ and/or feminist issues. Yet, in her Wikipedia page, the only photograph that is shown is of a male, football player titled Dusty. After researching this image, I came across more information about its representation of boys in between adolescence and adulthood and is a part of a series titled High School Football. Also, in Catherine’s “Life” section, the first information given about her life was how she was inspired by a male photographer. While this may be true, I think that it is odd and inappropriate to cite this as if it’s the first or most significant aspect of her life. At the end of this section Julie Burleigh is written as Catherine’s companion and not explicitly states as her partner, girlfriend or perhaps even wife (I cannot find information on whether or not they have gotten married). Catherine’s page lists a few locations where she has exhibited and published her works. However, according to multiple sources, she has exhibited in many other places, including Ghent, Belgium; Oslo, Norway and Tokyo, Japan. Wikipedia fails to include and broadcast all of her exhibitions, publications and accomplishments.


 * Propose a paragraph of new or substantially edited content based on reliable sources. (If you are editing existing content, post the current version along with your edited version, and clearly mark which is which.)

LIFE When Catherine was nine years old, she wrote a book report on Lewis Hine’s photographs of child laborers. After that, she told her parents she wanted to be a social-documentary photographer. She is quoted saying, “I talked to them about this photograph of a little girl who worked in a factory in North Carolina and how this guy was able to change the laws,” which influenced her advocate and document the lives of LGBTQ members to bring forth social change.

Catherine and her partner, Julie Burleigh, a painter, own a house together in Los Angeles. Opie runs her studio out of their house. The couple also has a 13 year old son, Oliver, together.

WORK The image shown to the right is a part of the series by Opie titled High School Football. Within this series, Catherine depicts male football players from around the United States, including Los Angeles, Alaska, Hawaii and Louisiana. These photographs demonstrate the shift that boys have from adolescence to adulthood. She is able to communicate the connection between these boys as single entities and their identities within their high school football team.

AWARDS •	Julius Shulman Excellence in Photography award (2013)

EXHIBITIONS •	Catherine Opie: Portraits and Landscapes The Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio (2015) •	Installation for the Los Angeles Federal Courthouse (2016)


 * List the reliable sources that could be used to improve this gap. (You can use the Cite tool from the editing toolbar above to input and format your sources.)