I Tarocchi di Fumo

Hi all!

As I promised in my first post, I'm going to share with you my new deck project.

"I Tarocchi di Fumo" meaning something like "Smoke Tarot", or to better describe it "Misty Tarot", is a Photographic Tarot Deck created by me in the last 3 months.
It's based on the Marseille Tarot deck by Nicolas Conver. I Tried to convert in photographic means as best as possible the details and symbolism of the original marseille's Decks.

Of course the first thing that comes to the attention is the loss of colours, because it is a Black & White Fine art Duotone Project.

The Main Theme of course is the Mist, or the smoke, which envelops all the characters and accompanies the Fool in his journey in the subconscious, starting by the animal that pushes the fool, which is made of smoke, going on through all the deck.

It's a full 78 Cards Deck, with the 1 to 10 numbers of the Minor Arcana made with graphics, and not figures, as the Marseilles are. With the Pentacles, the Chalices, the Wands and the Swords positioned exactly as the original deck was.

Last thing to say is that of course many positions and details of the original deck couldn't be reproduced in a photographic deck, like for example the perspective of the wheel of fortune which is completely wrong concerning physics, and other little things, but anyway... I Hope you enjoy it, it's been a tough work, and I'm hoping to have the Deck and a little photo-book published by june!

http://s18.photobucket.com/user/JackFry228/library/Tarocchi di Fumo Showcase

the password for the album is: fumo14

I love black and white photography. These are great so far! And I think the smoke theme as you describe it is a great idea. Smoke is so nebulous and suggestive, like Tarot can be.

At first when I saw the thread I thought of the art technique fumage, which is painting with smoke stains. I know you are working with photos but thought you might to see the work in the link below. They look like black and white photos but amazing to realize they were painted with smoke.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet...vas-create-amazingly-realistic-portraits.html

Your photos are lovely. They remind me of old time photos of Mata Hari and such. How do you make the smoke effect? Is it photoshopped in or actual smoke or a combination?

They look nice though only part of the cards appear to be shown.

Thanks for the comments!

Yeah, those paintings are beautiful! I feel though that the concept is a little bit different, because in those paintings the smoke exhales from the figure itself, making it part-smoke as a matter of fact.
In my idea on the other hand, the smoke is surrounding and covering the figures, and going along with them, and creating some of the objects. Only the animals and the knights are part-smoke, giving power to the idea that the smoke is the guide, the instinct, coming from the inside.

As for the tecnique, I won't go into specific graphic detail, but I can say that it's more a photo-merge, than graphic renderings: I photographed the models and the smoke separately and the I used the pictures of the smoke to cover the characters in post-production. Just like all the objects added are photographs, there's no drawings nor renderings!

Rhapsodin: If you want, you can see the full image by clicking the first thumbnail in the album to enlarge it and then moving with the arrows!