Images 003

Rule 2: CHARACTER
~ by Cait Oppermann

Cait Oppermann is a Kansas City-born, Brooklyn-based photographer who, at this very moment, is probably on an airplane somewhere. Blurring the line between documentary and fine art, Cait has worked for clients from Nike and Google to The New Yorker and Bloomberg Businessweek.
For me, “characters” are the narrative glue that give us context and meaning for the stories we follow. A two-hour marathon means nothing without the people working to achieve it, it’s a human story about human potential and the characters are at the core of it. Humans are so complex and yet so simple at the same time, that’s what makes us interesting. Our relationships with each other are simple and complicated all at once. That balance is interesting to me. There’s a basic human need in every story, whether heavy or light-hearted, and I can pick it out in every shoot I’ve ever done. There’s a bit of conflict in everything.

I'm interested in people who are experts in something. Once you get someone talking about something they know a lot about or are excited about, you can kind of start to build a bridge to another part of them. I think that’s when a “character” is formed for me. I think you have to break a little seal and the pictures start to have a bit more life, a bit more “character.”

Photography is a complicated form of storytelling, though I suppose all storytelling is complicated because you have to think about the storyteller. Who is the storyteller? Why are they telling the story? What stake do they have in the story? I always have a stake somehow whether I’m aware of what it is or not because of who I am, where I come from, my privilege, my struggles. I suppose photography is my chosen form of storytelling because I personally like to see all of the details around a character. I like to see the room, the furniture, the people, the magazines on the coffee table, the color of the dirt. It’s a selective view because the viewer has no say in what is revealed and what is not, but that’s the beauty of storytelling.

I get a lot of assignments where I'm allowed free rein to shoot how I want, both literally and figuratively zoom in and out of something. I think I like the minute details and I like these sweeping views that kind of give you a sense of a place or thing or event. Some of my favorite shoots that I've ever done, have these different like changes in scale. Time is so important, having room to breathe within a subject I’m shooting. I always give myself more time than I think I need, just because you never know where a story is going to go or where a character is going to steal your attention for a little bit.

Interview and edit by Erin Ruffin
Illustrations by Melissa Jarram