Ed Templeton

Bam and Michelle. 1998. Gelatin Silver. variable size


Kids Kiss, England. Gelatin Silver. variable size





Liz Rice - RVCA parking lot. Gelatin Silver. variable size


Exhibition Detail


Ed Templeton is a prominent skateboarder, but is also becoming known as a prominent photographer, designer, and artist. Born in 1972 in Orange County, California. He started Skateboarding in 1985. In 1993, Ed founded his own skateboard company, Toy Machine, and begane making the graphics for the skateboards. Around this time he began growing an affinity for art, with each deck he would make. He is a self taught artist, his work reflects upon the ideas of street and urban culture in America, focusing on what he knows best, skateboarding and its periphery. He has been featured in the hit documentary film, "Beautiful Losers", (also a touring art exhibition and collected book) a film about contemporary artists dealing with their surrounding urban environments. He has shown his work world and nationwide and is becoming a known figure in the underground art scene. He's been featured in the Art Street Culture magazine Juxtapoz (who also produced an Art Exhibition in 2002 called "The Essential Disturbance", in Paris at the Palais de Tokyo), his book of photographs, "Teenage Smokers", in 2000 won $50,000 in the Search For Art competition in Italy.

I chose Ed Templeton to talk about because of his intimate look at his life and the people he's met through owning a company, skateboarding, touring, and basically just living life. He takes a very raw, uncut, journalistic approach using 35mm to increase the drama and add to the grittiness of what he does. He focuses on the urban, skate, and street culture of where he goes. I enjoy the aesthetic that he brings to the table, and the element of DIY and zine culture presented and inherit into his work. Although self taught (in which i have a few reservations) he seems to make and capture the most intimate of moments.

quotes:

"to stimulate discussion, thought, and general interest in the contemporary landscape. Neither an environmental group nor an industry affiliated organization...integrates the many approaches to land use - the many perspectives of the landscape - into a single vision that illustrates the common ground in “land use” debates. At the very least, the Center attempts to emphasize the multiplicity of points of view regarding the utilization of terrestrial and geographic resources."
-Center for Land Use Interpretation



Interview
Official Website
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