JenWt43
A tarot photo project has never come my way but it is not something I would want to do unless there was a superbly competent designer driving it and there was plenty of cash to make sure the realization met everyone's expectations. Imagine building 78 sets with props, 78 costumes, 78 models, 78 makeup and hair jobs. Lighting. Even considering repeating themes (maybe one set for all cards in a suit) and using the same models in many cards, you've got several weeks of work just getting ready. Five to ten setups a day--that's three weeks of studio time. Post production digitial manipulation and reshooting take another couple of days.
Drawing, painting, constructing or digital creation of 78 individual pieces is no less complicated.
I have seen descriptions of what Karen and Alex went through in making the Magic Realist Press decks, and it is very similar to this description, of course. Although they shared the same vision, and created beautiful images, they had such difficulty with the printers. I have come to appreciate what an enormously complicated process it is to create a tarot deck. Which is why I started mumbling and walked away, when a friend of ours asked my fiancee to do the "computer work" on a tarot deck he has envisioned. Computer work? I have a feeling that nothing good will come of this...