Deanna Templeton
Issue #23
The So-Cal photographer shares her thoughts on skateboarding, self-esteem, and saggy skin
By Valerie Palmer
Published: March 5th, 2005 | 2:42pm
Don’t let photographer Deanna Templeton’s petite stature fool you — her idealism comes in an extra-large size.
A longtime shutterbug, Templeton began pursuing photography seriously in 1998, capturing the people and places in her hometown of Huntington Beach, California, and in her travels to Europe and around North America. Working solely in black and white, her documentary-style photographs feature a woman’s perspective on domestic life and personal relationships, the peripheral roles women play in male-dominated arenas like skateboarding, and the depiction of women in the media.
While she’s making her own waves these days, Templeton has played a key role on the other side of the lens, acting as a muse for her husband of 13 years, artist and professional skateboarder Ed Templeton. His documentation of their life together includes some very intimate moments, which Templeton said she wholeheartedly supports. “Looking at these photos later — when we’re old and wrinkly and saggy — it’s going to be awesome, just to look back on how we lived, how we loved, how we looked.”
Templeton’s own work has been shown in galleries across the United States, and her favorite pieces appear in her self-published series of handmade books, Blue Kitten. She also has designed four T-shirts for RVCA Clothing that address the two causes nearest and dearest to her heart: feminism and animal rights. Templeton also is excited about her spring 2005 solo show at the n44 shop in Paris.
One of Templeton’s ongoing photographic series is a study on “body autographs,” a phenomenon that seems to occur wherever skaters, surfers, rock stars, and even paintballers gather. Her fascination with this ritual began a few years ago in Ottawa, Canada, when she met two 15-year-old girls sitting on the sidelines at a skateboarding event, rolling a joint on a My Little Pony notebook. She was smitten by their innocence and shocked when one of the girls asked a skater to autograph her bra. “I mean, she looked like a baby to me! It looked like a training bra!” Templeton said.
Ever since, she’s been fascinated by the ritual: the brief moment of contact between fan and performer, the transitory nature of ink on skin, and the young teenage girls who get such a thrill from being the center of attention, even for an instant. Templeton talks to a lot of groupies on the skateboarding circuit and tries to impress upon them their own self-worth, not wanting to see anybody put herself in a compromising position. “There’s so much misinformation out there,” she said. “It’s my responsibility as an adult and as a woman to speak up.”
Comments
Please login to be able to comment on this article.
more