How long have you been creating Tarot decks?

About 12 years.

How many have you created?

Warning -- those on pacemakers shouldn't read this answer: sixty-two.

Do you think that others should create their own decks?

ABSOLUTELY!

The Tarot images are archetypical – until you establish your own personal links – until you free your creative/unconscious to communicate with where ‘you’ think ‘I’ is…

You don’t have to show your deck to anyone – create in private and allow the archetypes to communicate with you – it’s the creative communication that is important, not the realization.
 

Over time, how has your approach to deck creation evolved?

That is a difficult question.  I’m not sure who I was 12 years ago.  From the beginning, it has been a very personal meditation.  It’s been about who I mis-thought I was at that point in time.  It has been about relating “my” concept of “me” to the “I” archived in the archetypic imagery of the Tarot.

How do you determine the order in which you'll create the cards for a given deck?

That question presumes that I (or any creator) is in charge of the creative process.  That is just a self-delusion.  The images appear in flashes of lucidity – all that I do is translate that into a concrete exemplar – not always successfully since it gets filtered by “me” and by the technical process involved in concretizing the insight.

Often the biggest problem for me is to force out the last few images to complete a deck.  I would be interested in guesses as to the last image I forced for this web-deck.  If you send me an email, I will let you know if you are correct.

Unless I'm mistaken, your earlier decks were primarily photographic, while later decks incorporate more and more computer manipulation of the images. How has the machine impacted your creative process?

Actually all my decks are based on photography.  The recent web-decks are just manipulations of photographs – photography is art for us klutzes who couldn’t keep the crayons inside the printed lines – and especially for those of us who had the neuromuscular coordination but saw the printed lines as a stupid, imposed convention!

I have been using the ‘machine’ in my scientific work since 1967 – in my tarot work for about 5 years.  Experiencing the ‘machine’ as image-processor as a great opening for me – the dimensions of creativity suddenly changed.  The limits of possibility were once again only my own limitations – the limitations were no longer imposed on me – I had only myself to blame.

What makes the deck featured in this gallery of images distinctive?

I have no idea.  They are just the self-misguided impressions of who I thought I was relative to an archetypic signpost at that point in time.  If you LOVE an image – it may say something about where ‘we’ are together.  If an image has no impact – then it probably just means that you aren’t me.  If you HATE an image – maybe we should talk.

To what extent is it possible (or even desirable) to incorporate esoteric meaning in a modern photographic deck?

That depends on what you mean by ‘esoteric’.

If you mean gobbledegook = semi-hidden Hebrew Letters or references to a supposed hidden ancient wisdom.  Yes, that can be done – thereby rejecting antibiotics in favor of bleeding victims to drain the evil humors.

If you mean wisdom beyond the superficial left-brained - that will emerge even if the creator denies it.

How do you find and select your models?

I only work with professional models.  Originally, I found models by attending photography workshops.  Now 99% of models are referred to me by models that I have worked with in the past.

Selecting models that I continue to work with is very individualistic – the critical element is the ability to project.  Beyond that, I have the most success with athletes, bodybuilders, dancers, and actors/actresses.  The model brings a set of physical and mental talents to the process and the photographer then works with those talents.

To what extent do your images emerge in the photographic session (vs. being sketched or visualized in advance)?

Ordinarily, one starts with a lucid image.

Then one deals with the exigencies of technique (lighting, background, props, film, exposure, color, costumes,….)

Then one communicates with a model and tries to convey that lucid image.

Then you both try.

Maybe 99% of the time you both fail and the image is discarded

Maybe 0.99% of the time you produce some fleeting glimpse of the lucid image.

On the rare 0.01% of the time, Cerberus (Fluffy) falls asleep to the sound of the harp and you and Hermione open the trap door into…

What is this particular deck's perspective or theme? Could you cite some specific elements of specific cards which you feel are especially successful at communicating that theme?

Background and texture emerged as the theme.  The Tarot symbols as emerging into consciousness from a textured background of everyday life or from a distorted dream fantasy.  Examples are Rods: 5 and Queen, Swords: 3 and 9, Discs 2,3,5,6,7, Cups: 7,9,10, Maid, and the Priestess and Star.

Which card was most difficult to create, and why?

I would like to leave that open to speculation.  I know which card it was – but I can’t discover why until some mythic future point when ‘i’ understand.

To what extent did any card in this deck fail to meet your expectations?

PHEW! “Which of your children do you love the least?”

Did any of the cards exceed your expectations, becoming something you didn't anticipate?

The emergence of the unexpected is the critical driving force behind creativity.

You start with an expectation – but in the dynamic interaction of model and photographer an image emerges that may have little to do with that expectation.  In a sense nothing lives up to the expectation – you never really capture the lucid image that started the process.  In a sense everything exceeds expectations - there is clearly magic when our conscious efforts link to archetypes.

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