Deanna Templeton Captures Girls Underwater
- Words
- Brit Seaton
Over the course of eight years, Californian street photographer Deanna Templeton has photographed a collection of summer skinny-dippers in her backyard pool. In usual Templeton style, the series is shot entirely on film, and aptly titled ‘The Swimming Pool’.
The project began when Templeton photographed her professional skateboarder and artist husband Ed Templeton naked in their swimming pool, finding that when she got the frames back, they “looked almost like pencil drawings.” She then invited friends to do the same, shooting them at the height of summer each year in a time window of around three to four hours, avoiding the shadow of a back porch canopy in the water. Templeton used both colour and black and white film to capture the swimming figures, gently distorted by ripples and bubbles. By filling each shot’s frame with just two components–the water and the figure–Templeton creates an innate air of timelessness in the images. Through this, she captures the simple pleasure of being underwater, where everything is weightless and quiet.
All images © Deanna Templeton
