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All this shit sucks. Photography is the most overrated artform.
@SneakySecrets If you thought regular photography was overrated just wait until you see Richard Prince's stuff.
I'll always adore Ed's skating, his older graphics, and his outspoken opposition to the rampant homophobia of the early 90s.
As far as Ed's photography- at least when Larry Clark documented his subjects he never pretended to be a nice guy.
Also, Ed barging and snapping compromising photos and nudes of younger skaters, especially his team riders, is kind of fucked up. He was a powerful person in skateboarding and he used that leverage, knowingly or not, to get these kids to give him the goods (from which he continues to profit from financially.) I'm not saying that makes him a bad person per se because when you're 18 you're 18, etc... but I think the nature of certain photography is predatory and it should be addressed when we talk about Ed.
This reminded me of that old photo that he took of Bam with his girlfriend in bed. Can't remember which thread it was in but it was definitely on the creepier side.
I feel so conflicted saying anything remotely negative about Ed btw.
Just to set the scene for any of the younger Slappers: the late 80s-the entire 90s were so incredibly homophobic that the USA was basically 2023 DeSantis Florida. Any of the LQBTQ+ folks on here please weigh in but I think it had a lot to do with the AIDS crisis (especially Reagan's behavior regarding it.) The wasn't much scientific information yet regarding HIV/AIDS in the 80s when people started getting sick and dying and Republicans/conservatives knew they could spin that fear into power. It was almost like there was government funded/state sanctioned homophobia.
In elementary school our homeroom teachers, science teachers, history teachers, etc told us and that if we interacted with any gay people we would get AIDS. That we could get it from using the toilet after them, from playing sports with them, or even touching the same objects right after them. So Ed was a fucking hero to me when he went against the grain by being an outspoken LGBTQ+ ally in the early 90s (check out his old TWS interview on Chromeball if you haven't already
https://chromeballincident.blogspot.com/2011/03/chrome-ball-incident-606-shit-luck.html ) and he caught major shit for it. Because of this I'll always appreciate him in way I'm unable to express verbally.
TDLR:
Ed has done great things on and off the board. Transgressive and subversive artists and artworks are important and I'm not asking for them to go away. I just have criticisms about Ed's photographs and think the dialogue about his work should include the dynamics of his power/authority within skateboarding.