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Beautiful Losers is a new feature documentary film, just premiered in the States, that celebrates the independent and DIY spirit that unified a loose-knit group of American artists who emerged from the underground youth subcultures of skateboarding, graffiti, punk rock and hip hop - the likes of Ed Templeton (above), Shepard Fairey (whose art was recently shown in London - see below), Harmony Korine and Mike Mills. Directed by Joshua Leonard, it explores the remarkable impact that this group of influential outcasts have had on contemporary culture. How, for instance, does a young guy learning to skate become an internationally renowned photographer? They are imaginative doers, people united by an artistic independence who have somehow gone from here to there without really knowing what happened in between. “The real magic lies not only in the fact that we were acknowledged, but that, really, none of us were supposed to get there,” says Aaron Rose. “This is art created by a group of individuals who, in the eyes of society, were considered outcasts. When we started making our work it was never even an option to think of having a career.”
Perhaps the one guy who best encapsulates the kind of artistic success no one could have predicted is Ed Templeton (above), the non-smoking, teetotaling, vegan “hippie who hates hippies.” One of the first to take skateboarding beyond the bowls and pipes and out into the real world (street skating to you and I), Templeton turned to photography early on and, inspired by the brutal realism of the likes of Larry Clark, began to document his own life, firstly in skating but later in a far wider context: “I realised I was missing out on all this great subject matter that I was living around.” The shackles were off. There was so much more to say beyond skateboarding: “Every free moment I’m walking around the streets shooting photos of life in general. But I don’t stop there, I keep going, into my house.” And into the bedroom if his series of nude pictures of his wife Deanna are anything to go by...
Templeton wonders if he’ll be remembered when he’s gone, but if he isn’t, then he’s determined to ensure that his work is. “The thing I dislike is art that seems to have no craft. It’s just a clever idea and you have to have gone to years of art school to understand why it means anything. A fabricated blue cube on the wall says nothing to me, but a painting made by hand about subject dear to the artist says a lot more. Seriously documenting a certain time or group of people - that has a chance of going down in history as interesting.” That’s exactly what Beautiful Losers seems to have done: celebrating the people who, both as individuals and as a group, embody the boundless creative spirit that will always transcend what lesser people see only as limitations.
CHECK OUT OUR RECENT PIECE ON LARRY CLARK, THE PHOTOGRAPHER AND FILMMAKER WHO INSPIRED ED TEMPLETON, RIGHT HERE, AND ALSO ANP, THE BEAUTIFUL FREE-OF-CHARGE, FREE-OF-ADVERTISING ART MAGAZINE THAT HE NOW EDITS. A JACK OF ALL TRADES IN THE TRUEST SENSE...
