Deanna Templeton's captivating new photo bookThe Swimming Pool has been eight years in the making. It's a stand-out departure from her usual noisy street photography style, offering an expressive and intimate view of the human form underwater.
Templeton started taking pictures in 1985 on a Canon T90 camera her mother bought for her. She shot her surroundings; the people she met on the streets and the punk shows she would go to in Los Angeles, as a way to escape the growing pains of life in the suburbs of Huntington Beach, California. Over the last 30 years, Templeton has developed and cultivated an unmatched photographic practice. The Swimming Pool is the reflection of a seasoned photographer willing to explore new territory. Unlike her street photography, in which subjects were often strangers, Templeton found that creating these portraits required more intimacy and connection—a feeling that is apparent throughout every image in the series, which show strong, liberated individuals, confident and at ease in their most beautiful and vulnerable of moments.
Born out of an impromptu skinny dip by her husband Ed Templeton in their pool, The Swimming Pool, has amassed to an explorative and calming collection of all film photographs, shot only on black and white and color film, as well as polaroids. After deciding to grab her camera and shoot some photos of Ed in the pool, Deanna got her print sheets back, and the photos looked different from anything she had ever shot. There were only eight frames, but she thought more photos could be interesting. She asked a couple of friends if they would mind swimming for her, and after doing a show with what she shot that summer, she had a gut feeling that it wasn’t done yet, so she kept shooting. About two years ago, artist Thomas Campbellsaw some of the work and was interested in making it into a book via his publishing company Um Yeah Arts.
Now with the recent release of The Swimming Pool, Um Yeah Arts has come out with this behind the scenes video of Deanna at work an talking about the book. Directed by Campbell, and shot and edited by Tiffany Campbell, the video is a striking visual portrait of Deanna's photographic process.
Watch the video below.
