These photos are a series of portraits based on the archetypes of tarot cards. The Magician, The Star, The Hanged Man—these archetypes have been passed on throughout human existence as the stories and characters we’ve found to be common among our experience. Tarot is a rich repository of signs and symbols which draws from influences including mysticism, occultism, the renaissance, the middle ages, and more. 

 

At the very least, the practice of divination through tarot cards allows us to think about our lives through the context of these symbols and the stories of its archetypes. Not just tarot, but movies, TV, books, and other media, draw from these archetypes and reinforce the framing of our own story. Archetypes, whether we consciously realize it or not, are a powerful tool we use to make sense of the existential chaos of our experience, to create meaning through our identity and its associated actions.

 

These photos are an attempt to tie modern people to some of the oldest representations of archetypes, with an emphasis on the expression or pose that embodies the specific archetype. The hope is that the viewer will read the archetype in the being of the subject and ask themselves, “What card am I?” These photos were inspired by the Rider-Waite tarot deck and were made on medium format film.