The Mountain Dream Tarot
August 13, 2020 3:10 PM Subscribe
Bea Nettles has dedicated her life to photography, and she executed what is believed to be the world’s first-ever photographic tarot deck in the early 1970s. She was enrolled as a printmaking student at the Penland Art School in Bakersville, North Carolina, in the Blue Ridge Mountains, when in 1970 she had a dream in which she came up with the idea of producing her own tarot deck using the art of photography. [Dangerous Minds]
Another very nice (but completely different) early photographic deck is the New York Tarot.
posted by doubtfulpalace at 3:40 PM on August 13, 2020 [8 favorites]
posted by doubtfulpalace at 3:40 PM on August 13, 2020 [8 favorites]
The New York deck has Quentin Crisp as Strength. Posed with one of the NYPL lions. Perfect.
posted by njohnson23 at 4:12 PM on August 13, 2020 [4 favorites]
posted by njohnson23 at 4:12 PM on August 13, 2020 [4 favorites]
Nettles interviewed by Lyle Rexer, photograph magazine Jan/Feb 2020
Breaking the rules: A photo media cookbook by Bea Nettles
posted by Iris Gambol at 4:37 PM on August 13, 2020 [1 favorite]
Breaking the rules: A photo media cookbook by Bea Nettles
posted by Iris Gambol at 4:37 PM on August 13, 2020 [1 favorite]
One of those damn-I-wish-I’d-thought-of-that things.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 7:43 PM on August 13, 2020
posted by The Underpants Monster at 7:43 PM on August 13, 2020
LOL I love how Strength is just holding a Labrador or something.
posted by Tom-B at 7:53 PM on August 13, 2020
posted by Tom-B at 7:53 PM on August 13, 2020
Oh, this is dreamy and strange and wonderful. I visited Penland when I was fairly little (I have family near-ish), and it's a remarkable place. I love that this came from there.
(I haven't read tarot in ages, but tempted to buy a deck -- and also her bookbinding book!)
posted by kalimac at 9:10 PM on August 13, 2020
(I haven't read tarot in ages, but tempted to buy a deck -- and also her bookbinding book!)
posted by kalimac at 9:10 PM on August 13, 2020
This is so very 70s.
posted by Kitchen Witch at 9:45 PM on August 13, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by Kitchen Witch at 9:45 PM on August 13, 2020 [3 favorites]
I think it's just her aesthetic? Check out 1990's "Moon Sisters" booklet. (More examples at the Bea Nettles: Harvest of Memory retrospective - 50 years! - online at the Eastman Museum.) I've liked her collaborations with her mom, poet Grace Nettles. I'm into technique chat and there's some of that in this LensCulture interview with Cat Lachowskyj.
[Thanks for this post, Johnny Wallflower!]
posted by Iris Gambol at 10:34 PM on August 13, 2020 [2 favorites]
[Thanks for this post, Johnny Wallflower!]
posted by Iris Gambol at 10:34 PM on August 13, 2020 [2 favorites]
doubtfulpalace, thanks for the tip on the New York Tarot.
posted by larrybob at 10:36 PM on August 13, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by larrybob at 10:36 PM on August 13, 2020 [1 favorite]
Suzanne Treister HEXEN 2.0 tarot cards.
HEXEN 2.0 looks into histories of scientific research behind government programmes of mass control, investigating parallel histories of countercultural and grass roots movements. HEXEN 2.0 charts, within a framework of post-WWII U.S. governmental and military imperatives, the coming together of scientific and social sciences through the development of cybernetics, the history of the internet, the rise of Web 2.0 and increased intelligence gathering, and implications for the future of new systems of societal manipulation towards a control society.
posted by are-coral-made at 12:17 AM on August 14, 2020 [1 favorite]
HEXEN 2.0 looks into histories of scientific research behind government programmes of mass control, investigating parallel histories of countercultural and grass roots movements. HEXEN 2.0 charts, within a framework of post-WWII U.S. governmental and military imperatives, the coming together of scientific and social sciences through the development of cybernetics, the history of the internet, the rise of Web 2.0 and increased intelligence gathering, and implications for the future of new systems of societal manipulation towards a control society.
posted by are-coral-made at 12:17 AM on August 14, 2020 [1 favorite]
I'd only ever seen the same old sets of hand-drawn tarot cards before; I wasn't aware that there were so many different and interesting versions. These are all neat to look at.
the entirely photoshop (but also photography-based) Cosmic Tribe Tarot,
Just an FYI in case someone is on their work computer, these are nicely done but somewhat NSFW.
posted by Dip Flash at 6:08 AM on August 14, 2020
the entirely photoshop (but also photography-based) Cosmic Tribe Tarot,
Just an FYI in case someone is on their work computer, these are nicely done but somewhat NSFW.
posted by Dip Flash at 6:08 AM on August 14, 2020
The artist of the Cosmic Tribe tarot, Stevee Postman, did graphics for long-haired queer zine Hippie Dick! in the 90s.
posted by larrybob at 8:22 AM on August 14, 2020
posted by larrybob at 8:22 AM on August 14, 2020
Absolutely love her work - great post!
posted by Lipstick Thespian at 9:22 AM on August 14, 2020
posted by Lipstick Thespian at 9:22 AM on August 14, 2020
Dip Flash, this is an era with a huge number of tarot decks from various aesthetics and various media.
posted by Nancy Lebovitz at 11:23 AM on August 14, 2020
posted by Nancy Lebovitz at 11:23 AM on August 14, 2020
This is cool!
posted by Liquidwolf at 4:51 AM on August 15, 2020
posted by Liquidwolf at 4:51 AM on August 15, 2020
Package Status: Arriving Late
Well, if you’d had a tarot deck you could have predicted that.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 9:55 PM on August 18, 2020 [1 favorite]
Well, if you’d had a tarot deck you could have predicted that.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 9:55 PM on August 18, 2020 [1 favorite]
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posted by Serene Empress Dork at 3:23 PM on August 13, 2020 [1 favorite]