PHOTO-EYE BEST BOOKS 2018

Ed Templeton's favorite book from 2018

I love picking up a book with a name I’ve never heard of and being blown away. Youth Unemployment was it this year, especially after hearing it was a posthumous book shepherded into being by Tish Murtha’s daughter. What an amazing body of work that possibly would never have been seen. It makes me think of the amazing bodies of work being made past or present that for whatever reason never get a chance at a wider audience.

Order Book or Read More

Ed Templeton (born 1972) is a respected cult figure in the subculture of skateboarding. His paintings, photographs, drawings, and mixed-media installations take their inspiration from the subculture he is a part of and the suburban environment he lives in. Templeton is also a two-time world-champion professional skateboarder, and the founder/creative force behind Toy Machine Skateboard Company. His work has been shown at MOCA, Los Angeles, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, S.M.A.K. Museum, Belgium, Bonnefanten Museum, Netherlands, Kunsthalle, Vienna, and BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, UK. His work is included in the LACMA permanent collection. Over 15 books of his work have been published. Ed-Templeton.com

< BACK BOOKSTORE HOME

Ed Templeton's favorite book from 2018

I know this isn't a contest, but I had a stack of books from 2021 on my coffee table and when I started looking through them and trying to come up with which one was my personal favorite of the year, the first thought that entered my head was, “OK, Encampment Wyoming smokes the competition!” An incredible time capsule of a bygone America seen from a woman’s perspective. It’s essentially the same kind of work some of today’s most celebrated photographers endeavor to make but it was done four generations before they were born.

I have a high threshold for nostalgic Americana, and this checks that box but from such a joyous and inquisitive standpoint. Lots of photographers documenting this era did so as reportage, and would often search out the extremes, depicting the very rich or the very poor, the disasters and victims to sell newspapers. This book is filled with portraits of happy people enjoying their time and life. In my humble opinion, this book is a master class of what and how to shoot for a young photographer looking to document their current moment.

Order Book or Read More

Ed Templeton (b.1972) is an American painter and photographer whose work reflects human behavior with emphasis on youth subcultures, religious affectation, and suburban conventions using a cinéma vérité approach embracing chance encounters. Templeton is a respected figure in the subculture of skateboarding, a two-time world-champion, and Skateboarding Hall of Fame inductee. His work has been exhibited in museums worldwide including, MOCA, Los Angeles, ICP, NYC, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, Kunsthalle, Vienna, Pier 24 Photography, San Francisco. His work is held in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, SMAK Museum Belgium, Bonnefanten Museum, Maastricht. He lives and works in Huntington Beach, California.

ed-templeton.com
@ed.templeton

< BACK BOOKSTORE HOME

Ed Templeton's favorite book from 2018

I'm a big Jim G. fan so I have been anticipating this one for a long time. It's big and messy and delivers the goods on so many levels! It's hard to constrain an artist like Goldberg in book form, he has such an extensive process of maquette making building up to the final book that inevitably I'm sure plenty of really cool stuff ends up left out, or different than a previous version, etc. I can't help but think of those alternative edits as a flip through. This book is a visual saga, a photographic autobiography delving deep into intimate familial dramas and touching on all of his known bodies of work and then some. Fans of his groundbreaking book Raised by Wolves will be excited to see new unpublished material from that work and even updates and tributes on some of the subjects/characters in that book. Incredible.

Order Book or Read More

Ed Templeton (b.1972) is an American painter and photographer whose work reflects human behavior with emphasis on youth subcultures, religious affectation, and suburban conventions using a cinéma vérité approach embracing chance encounters. Templeton is a respected cult figure in the subculture of skateboarding, a two-time world-champion, and Skateboarding Hall of Fame inductee. He is best known for his photographic books and multimedia exhibitions. His work has been exhibited in museums worldwide including MOCA, Los Angeles, ICP, NYC, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, Kunsthalle, Vienna, Pier 24 Photography, San Francisco. His work is held in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, SMAK Museum Belgium, Orange County Museum of Art, Bonnefanten Museum, Maastricht.

ed-templeton.com
@ed.templeton

< BACK BOOKSTORE HOME

Ed Templeton's favorite book from 2018

This is a collection of the entire Private Scenes photographic series that was begun in the late 1980's. Such an interesting and playful approach to self portraiture. He is in every single photo, but it is not always apparent at first glance. Most of the book is comprised of prints that have been painted on with expressive colors, which injects the hand into the work in a way I find very compelling.

Order Book or Read More

< BACK BOOKSTORE HOME

Ed Templeton's favorite book from 2018

Although not the kind of work I naturally gravitate towards, this book is absolutely beautiful. It feels like a book from the late 80's but with better printing. These photos shot between 1980 and 1988 have been stashed away unseen for some 35 years. Devoid of people, these Japanese landscapes are all heavily filled with the presence of man. What we build, what we leave behind, the lengths we go to bend nature and move earth to our will. The printing is exceptional, rich blacks and crispy whites. Each photo is humming with light and energy.

Order Book or Read More