In Deformer, artist Ed Templeton explores his upbringing in suburban Orange County, California, through photographs, stories, and ephemera from his youth and teen years, giving readers—as he did viewers of the short Mike Mills film of the same name—an intensely close and personal look at his coming of age. He weaves disciplinary letters from his grandfather and religious notes from his mother with telling images and brutal stories, creating an unresolved narrative that offers more questions than answers. Or perhaps the answers are these photographs, paintings, drawings, and sketchbook pages, which plunge readers headlong into not just Templeton’s chaotic existence but also his use of art to address its stresses and joys. Deformer is the culmination of a vision 11 years in the making, and collects over 30 years of material. Its photographs illuminate being young and alive in the "suburban domestic incubator," and provide—in the tradition of Nan Goldin or Larry Clark, with a sharp eye for the streets that recalls Garry Winogrand or Eugene Richards—a raw and unflinching glimpse into the artist’s own life and the lives around him.The iconoclastic aesthetic of Templeton’s work documents and comments on underground subcultures that are greatly inspired by independent music, skateboarding, graffiti, and punk rock fashion. He has developed a cult-like status due to his ability to capture the irreverent freedom and raw energy of this youth culture in suburban America.

SIGNED BY ED TEMPLETON.

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