“The minute I found skateboarding, I was immersed in a world of creative people- even as far back as middle school. Having a skateboard was the ticket into a new world.”
Ed Templeton, prolific skateboarding icon, entrepreneur, artist and realism photographer, rarely needs an introduction. Helping to shape the skateboarding world ethos as it is now as well as heavily contributing to the art and photography world, his influence has spanned decades.
Hailing from Garden Grove Orange County California, Ed was surrounded by some of the greats in skateboarding history during the early nineties, the golden age of skate culture. Skateboarders became rock-like celebrities selling skateboard decks, clothing, magazines, posters and anything skate related. Kids would flock to their local skate shops for the newest video to watch their favorite skaters travel the world, destroying their bodies on all types of terrain. Landing a trick was the goal but we also got to see the slams, the shenanigans and pranks behind the scenes, in the tour van and airport lobbies, the chaotic afterparties in abandoned warehouses and destroyed hotel rooms. We dressed like them, we talked like them and we skated like them. And then there was Ed.
Ed would party like the rest but he never consumed alcohol or drugs and more often than not could be seen behind the wheel of the van or behind the camera when he wasn’t skating, signing autographs or playing the part of “tour dad.” He quit a team sponsorship early on in his career, after winning the 1990 Munster World Street Cup in Germany, and went on to found his passion project Toy Machine (Toy Machine Bloodsucking Skateboarding Co.) where he would design, market and build the brand from his artwork, taking an anti-capitalistic and tongue in cheek approach, drawing from punk rock and avant-garde influences.
Toy Machine quickly grew in popularity with the youth in not just the skateboarding community but also the punk and metal scene, artists and anyone who could identify with anti-establishment. Andrew Reilly of The Huffington Post once described Toy Machine as “an adverse reaction to the misrepresented and highly corporate images of skateboarding in popular culture,” and Templeton himself has sardonically referred to fans of the brand as “loyal pawns.”
Nowadays, Ed and his wife Deanna, who have been connected at the hip since being married in 1991, spend time hosting art shows and displaying their photographs in art galleries when they aren’t walking the pier in Long Beach or traveling the world. Like Ed, Deanna is also a photographer, often finding similarities in subject matter during their walks, yet in a different perspective.
“We each have the things we are looking for. For me almost anything is worthy of a photo. I shoot a lot, then edit the images down for books or shows. People kissing, smoking, putting on make-up, carrying something, wearing a hat, dressing up, anything goes. Anything that illustrates the human existence.”
Ed recently released his latest photo book, a collection of notes, art and photographs pulled from his journals taken in the early days of skateboarding, the late 1990s to the early 2000s, entitled ‘Wires Crossed.’
“At its core it’s a photography book. I started this project to answer the question, “What is it like to be a pro skateboarder?” I wanted to give people an inside glimpse into our world. And I think it works on that level as a photographic document. Fans of photography can see it and enjoy the photographs, the time period, the moments portrayed, and the bigger story being woven together. It’s a time capsule.”
The first paragraph quote struck such a chord with me because in middle school is when I got my first skateboard and that’s exactly how I felt. I was thrown into a world of artists, musicians, freaks and weirdos and we were all trying to find ourselves while cruising down the asphalt streets in the heat of summer on a wooden plank atop four trembling wheels. I started seeing the entire world in a new light. I found art and poetry in the mundane and chaos in the simplest of architecture. I grew up watching Ed Templeton’s skate parts in videos and magazines and admiring his anti-capitalist, anti-establishment attitude in his artwork. His company, Toy Machine Bloodsucking Skateboarding Co. was the epitome of punk rock skate brands. His style helped shape a culture. His photos captured the magic and nostalgia of an entire generation. His snub to the corporate echelon and their goal of turning something so pure into money making monsters was at the forefront of his art and brand. A giant middle finger to the establishment. Live fast, die young.