The inhabitants of Haiti have brought to life the mysterious Tarot cards
"Ghetto Tarot" is a photo interpretation of traditional Tarot cards created by the famous photographer Alice Smits and a group of Haitian artists called "Artis Resistance" ("Artists of Resistance"). The images of the maps were reproduced using the simplest props and the sincere enthusiasm of the Haitians who took part in the shooting. The photographer says that the main purpose of the photos is to show that something negative can be turned into a positive with the help of a game. "A group of artists took banal junk and created their own vision of Tarot cards, which, in their opinion, is a reflection of beauty." Let's see what happened.
The photo project will get its logical conclusion, as photographer Alice Smits is already preparing everything necessary to turn these pictures into a real deck of cards!
"The desire of artists to change the world loaded with unflattering sentiments, to change its very meaning, and in a playful manner, is inspiring in itself," says Alice.
"It made me think about the fact that we ourselves choose to evaluate the tangible and intangible, creating positive or negative emotions."
"It's a choice to look at the destruction and see despair or treat it as the beginning of something new. And it is this choice that can change the meaning of every word, action and feeling."
"It is the awareness of this choice that I learned from Haitian artists, and we share this with the rest of the world through the "Ghetto Tarot" cards."
"The most difficult part of this project was the heat and dust of Haiti, as well as the fatigue resulting from these conditions. Moreover, we faced difficulties when we went to places where people did not know us."
"Some Haitians think that someone wants to harm them with witchcraft. Of course, we didn't want anything like that, but we had to be careful because we could be misunderstood."
"But all the difficulties dissolved in the flow of inspiration and enthusiasm that we shared with each other during filming."
"We had quite a lot of fun while making these pictures! There were a lot of funny moments there."
"Artists could almost always find everything I asked them for, even if it was a human skull. I do not know where they got all this from — it feels like this prop was just lying around, as if it should be."
"It's snowing on a map with five pentagrams, and for a long time we couldn't figure out how to recreate it in these conditions. But one day we saw a man shaking out his sleeping bag. The bag was old and literally shattered into pieces, creating a white "snow". We found a new bag and gave it to the man in exchange for the old one. He probably will never understand my joy when I got an old sleeping bag."
"I notice that my photos and the stories they represent appeal to the emotions of many viewers. They create inspiration either by the beauty captured in the center of the ghetto, or by the fact that the ancient Tarot cards have come to life."
"It is very important for a chef not only to cook food, but also to see how people eat it. It's the same in my case when it comes to creating a real deck of cards from my pictures."
"I liked the process of creating photos, but I will like even more the process of creating a deck of cards that people can look at every day."
"By mixing ancient Tarot cards with modern life in one of the most dangerous places on earth, I wanted to bring Tarot cards closer to people who don't know them, and also bring the "real world" closer to those who read Tarot."
"And the best way to achieve this is if the cards are not only on the screen, but also in your hands."