Take a trip down memory lane with the Ed Templeton Wires Crossed book, packed with over 250 pages of unseen photos, artwork, interviews and more from one of skateboarding's biggest legends.
Looking for a new skateboard book to add to your growing library? Or perhaps a coffee table talking piece to inspire intellectual debate? Maybe you just want a nice photobook to flick through while you take a dump? Whatever your reasons, if you've got any interest whatsoever in skateboarding then the new Ed Templeton Wires Crossed book is a must-have. Part documentary, part memoir, Wires Crossed covers one of skateboarding's most beloved and transformative eras through the lens of one of its leading pioneers.
Without a doubt one of the most influential figures in skateboarding, Ed Templeton has always straddled the line between skateboarder and artist: supplying the vast majority of the artwork for his brand, Toy Machine, while also producing various photobooks, including his award-winning 'Teenage Smokers', and forming part of the legendary Beautiful Losers collective. Despite his renowned artistic prowess, in the Ed Templeton Wires Crossed book he takes on a more educational role as he uses a combination of photographs, collages, texts, maps and other snippets from his journals to offer an insider's look into one of the most significant eras in skateboarding history.
ED TEMPLETON WIRES CROSSED BOOK
Covering the period between 1995 and 2012, the Ed Templeton Wires Crossed photobook features 264 pages of photos, artwork, interviews and more - most of which is previously unpublished and unseen - aimed at answering that age-old question: 'What's it actually like being a pro skater?'.
Given the time period, Ed Templeton Wires Crossed features a load of skateboarding's biggest legends, including Elissa Steamer, Brian Anderson, Erik Ellington, Matt Bennett, Geoff Rowley and more, as they make their way across the US in search of spots, providing an inside perspective on the early days of Toy Machine and their rapidly changing lives as skateboarding rose to new heights of popularity.
Not only does the Ed Templeton Wires Crossed book document skateboarding's explosion in popularity during the 1990s and eventual transformation into the thriving (sub?)culture it is today; it also illustrates Ed's own journey as an image-maker and a person with the book acting as a visual diary over the 17 year period.
But that's not to say that it's all about the photos. Ed Templeton Wires Crossed features a wealth of drawings, maps, hand-written musings and other snippets from Ed's personal journal to add an extra layer of personality and flavour to the images to help take you even deeper into this legendary period of history.
To further supplement these visuals, the Ed Templeton Wires Crossed book even features a range of interviews with some of the legends featured inside - including Ed himself as well as Erik Ellington, Elissa Steamer, Brian Anderson and Ed's wife, Deanna Templeton - to shed further light on the pressures and pleasures of their lives on the road.
It doesn't matter if you're an old-head looking to reminisce about the good old days or an eager grom hoping to learn some history; the Ed Templeton Wires Crossed book is an absolute must-have for any die-hard skaters. You don't even have to read it: just flick through the pictures and leave it where someone will see it, it'll definitely make you look cool.
