With Jamie Hankin's tarot we are in a realistic world, that of a photographer with a speciality in fashion
and vintage cars (!) Photographic tarot decks are not so frequently seen and when they are, most are not
very successful attempts to make a group of people act in the parts of the traditional tarot characters.
Hankin's basis for his tarot deck is his own world of fashion and of female models. It is a very
professionally made set of majors, far from the majority of limited and privately published decks in
USA, and for that matter from the mass media publishers' endless row of predictable commercial products.
Professional models, stylists, make-up and hair artists and designers stand behind the scenes in Hankin's
tarot, from the fundamental design to the printing. As said, this is a deck based upon female
models; it is not obvious to what degree the settings were created for this purpose or whether they
are wholly or partly selected from Hankin's archives. In any case, the selections are superb. That it
is an expert's design is obvious from the way the numbering in large Arabian digits is incorporated in
the photos, the choice of type font for the titles and in the discrete framing. The props, if any are used
at all, are minimal, limited to just a slight indication of the nature of the card. The cards are large -
106 x 160 mm - so justice is done proper to the images, an aspect that is neglected in many tarot decks.
This is, of course, not a tarot deck that can be used for anything but just looked at and enjoyed.
You can't play with it or read with it (well, someone may do that after all). But isn't looking and
enjoying enough in itself? Such decks are far between. Unfortunately.
With Jamie Hankin's tarot we are in a realistic world, that of a photographer with a speciality in fashion
and vintage cars (!) Photographic tarot decks are not so frequently seen and when they are, most are not
very successful attempts to make a group of people act in the parts of the traditional tarot characters.
Hankin's basis for his tarot deck is his own world of fashion and of female models. It is a very
professionally made set of majors, far from the majority of limited and privately published decks in
USA, and for that matter from the mass media publishers' endless row of predictable commercial products.
Professional models, stylists, make-up and hair artists and designers stand behind the scenes in Hankin's
tarot, from the fundamental design to the printing. As said, this is a deck based upon female
models; it is not obvious to what degree the settings were created for this purpose or whether they
are wholly or partly selected from Hankin's archives. In any case, the selections are superb. That it
is an expert's design is obvious from the way the numbering in large Arabian digits is incorporated in
the photos, the choice of type font for the titles and in the discrete framing. The props, if any are used
at all, are minimal, limited to just a slight indication of the nature of the card. The cards are large -
106 x 160 mm - so justice is done proper to the images, an aspect that is neglected in many tarot decks.
This is, of course, not a tarot deck that can be used for anything but just looked at and enjoyed.
You can't play with it or read with it (well, someone may do that after all). But isn't looking and
enjoying enough in itself? Such decks are far between. Unfortunately.