In 1979, the art critic John Russell wrote that, with Deakin's passing, "There was lost a photographer who often rivalled Bacon in his ability to make a likeness in which truth came wrapped and unpackaged. His portraits...had a dead-centred, unrhetorical quality. A complete human being was set before us, without additives." A series of exhibitions revived Deakin's reputation after the obscurity of his final years. In 1984, the Victoria & Albert Museum mounted the exhibition "John Deakin: The Salvage of a Photographer". In 1996, the National Portrait Gallery, London, presented "John Deakin Photographs". An exhibition, "John Deakin: Tattoo Portraits" was staged in Liverpool in 1999.