Angela Scheirl

One of the most celebrated American photographers working today, Catherine Opie first gained national recognition in the early 1990s for her intimate portraits of gender nonconforming friends and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender friends and loved ones. In this photograph, performer and filmmaker Hans Scheirl—whose work also addresses issues of sexuality and gender identity—sits confidently before the camera, photographed here a few years before his gender transition. The title of the work reflects his name at the time he sat for the portrait. The artist began this series of portraits at a time of great discrimination within the LGBT community. Opie chose to depict American sexual and gender minorities with great dignity and intimacy—a radical move amid the growing AIDS crisis of the 1990s. In works like "Angela Scheirl," Opie allows her subjects to present themselves to the camera in their truest form.