Deanna Templeton's guide captures the emotional relativity of women
Deanna Templeton's new book What She Said features portraits of young women from Europe, the US, Australia and Russia fused with images of personal materials that Templeton herself amassed in the 1980s, such as gig flyers and excerpts from her own diary this time .
The book, edited by Mack, is based on a text from the 1985 Smiths song of the same name: "What she said was sad, but all the reluctance she had to pretend she was happy could only be idiocy . " The lyric is a fitting prelude to the complexity of emotions that Templeton's project highlights and wonderfully shows how teenage anxiety and living emotions transcend time.
All images by Deanna Templeton from What She Said, 2021. Courtesy of the artist and Mack
There is up to 40 years of separating the materials on their own teenage activities and the portraits of the young women in the book. The project is also very personal; Templeton's handwritten diary entries are clearly blown up on the page, exposing her teenage fears, loneliness, questions, joys, and fears.
However, the cohesion as a whole is proof of the universality of experiences and emotions that shape many young women around the world and persist across generations and time zones.
The emotional respite Templeton finds in the local Huntington Beach, California music scene is reflected in the way posters and band references are woven throughout the book. This feeling is reflected in the contemporary photographs of young women, whose identity is intertwined with subculture and punk aesthetics.
In the time since their own youth, social media has become both a platform and a medium for the emotional inundation of girls and young women. However, when we recognize Instagram and TikTok as simply the contemporary digital incarnation of Templeton's handwritten reflections, it becomes clear that the emotion, the turmoil, and the search for identity are a rite of passage. one that has been experienced by previous generations of young women and will be experienced by many more – and there is something remarkably comforting to be inferred from.
What she said of Deanna Templeton is published by Mack; mackbooks.co.uk