Deanna Templeton, What She Said (20121)Photography Deanna Templeton
Could you share with us how this project came to be? And how you first became interested in documenting adolescence?
Deanna Templeton: Well, this book came about firstly because I ve always been very fond of text with art and wanted a way to incorporate it into my work. So before this became a book I came across some boxes that I have had in my closet for years and decided to take a look at what I have been holding onto. I came across my diaries and journals from when I was 14 to 18 years old. Around the same time, looking through my photo archive, I started to notice that a lot of the women I was shooting had a very similar look. Then it just clicked, these images could help illustrate my youth at the time of the writings. So the book is composed of modern portraits, my teenage diary/journal entries, and selected flyers from concerts that I went to.
2020 was a particularly hard year for the trans and non-binary community. Not only were we struck by the morbid, isolating restrictions of lockdown, but we faced increasing global violence (particularly against trans people of colour), transphobic tirades, and the implementation of devastating policy by Liz Truss.
Now, against the advice of healthcare professionals, court orders have halted puberty blockers being given out at The Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust (the London-based Gender Identity Development Service), thereby restricting the access of these drugs to under-16 trans youths. Amid this backdrop of hostility, violence, prejudice, and isolation a group of artists came together during lockdown to resiliently forge a creative trans community.
It’s likely you know what I’m referring to right now. Returning to our screens after filming was halted in March and its queens were locked down like the rest of us, Ms Paul screamed at Mr Joe Black for wearing a pink, ruched number from the high street retailer on the runway. While the moment made for thrilling TV and spawned a lot of fab memays, this idea of ‘polish’ – which really translates to ‘money’ – plays into some of the biggest worries plaguing our community right now: that we can’t afford to look right. That we aren’t doing drag right.