The photobook Genre / Gender / Portraiture explores identity through a focused examination of portraiture. Catherine Opie captures nuanced expressions of gender and social roles, presenting portraits that challenge and complicate traditional genre boundaries within photography.

The images emphasize the interplay between appearance and self-presentation, highlighting the fluidity of gender and the performative aspects of identity. Opie’s compositional choices reflect a careful balance between intimacy and distance, encouraging a deeper consideration of the subjects’ presence and the cultural frameworks shaping their depiction.

Comprising 176 pages, the book presents a sustained visual inquiry into how portraiture can articulate complex questions of gender and classification.