Photo Project Shoot: Neonate Tarot

 My ideas for this photoshoot were to create ten of the twenty two major acana of the tarot cards.  My idea was using baby heads as this was a portrait project so I had purchased a bag of baby heads.

For the shoot, I set up a light box with a black backdrop This meant that I could arrange the heads in different ways, but the light and backdrop would keep the photographs consistent.  I had drawn the different set-ups, and I had ideas about how I would execute each one.  I also used felt, blu-tack, sticky tape, a needle and strong thread and scissors.  The shoot took several hours due to the nature of the set-ups, and the heads are very small, so it was quite fiddly to put them together.

I then shot each set-up using ISO 100, F4 and would adjust exposure compensation as I went along. I shot in black and white and really wanted to bring out the contrasting shades and tones.  I shot a few in colour just to see what these looked like.  I took around 350 shots in total. 

I then uploaded these to my desktop and completed the contact sheets on Photoshop, this means there are 12 sets of contact sheets, so I will add some here, but all the contact sheets can be found on this link: Neonate Contact Sheets

My first shots were of card 0 - 'The Fool'.  These shots were the simplest as they just included one head and the jester's ruff.  The fool doesn't know anything; he is a new beginning and is guided by intuition.  The fool is the beginning of a new journey. He is optimism and hope but can be foolish and make rash or spontaneous decisions. 

This shot was taken on F5 with a fairly slow shutter at 1/50, ISO 100 and slightly underexposed at 0.7, I underexposed slightly to bring out the black backdrop.  The slow shutter was okay as it was a fairly still shot. I did not use a tripod for these; however, as they were tabletop, I could balance my elbows on the table to keep static. I believe this shot came out exactly as I had hoped, it is kind of haunting, and the contrast of the black backdrop and baby face worked well. 

This shot is of XV - 'The Devil'.  The Devil is about being seduced by the material world, luxuries and pleasures.  It is also about over-indulgence and being trapped by fear, perhaps in a cycle of addiction to these things.  

This shot was taken on F4 nd at 1/80, ISO 100 and with a -2 exposure compensation.  Again, I underexposed the shot to bring out the blacks.  This shot really does work well for me as the devil looks pensive and downwards, suggesting where he has come from. This shot is very consistent with my first of 'The Fool'. 

The next shot I will share here is VI - 'The Lovers'.  The Lovers is about relationships and what needs to be sacrificed for a relationship, and often in this card, the snake may appear as in The Garden of Eden to show temptation.  This card is also ruled by Gemini, which is why I chose to show the two heads, like the twins, in this image. It is about finding a soulmate, but it could be about finding a reflection, and perhaps not liking what you become when looking at yourself through their eyes. 

In this shot, again fairly consistent with the other shots F4.5, ISO 100 and Shutter 1/80. This time the shot was exposure compensation -1.3 underexposed.  This double image I really enjoyed taking as head below, is not a reflection but a real head, but it looks like a reflection.  The face is slightly darker and in the shadows, and again, there is something strange and ethereal about it.

The next shot is I - 'The Magician'.  The Magician is the next step from the fool, and here the Magician is often at the crossroads, as this is where we make choices, or he points above and below.  The magician is about using our own abilities and resources and finding our way.  The magician, of course, cannot be trusted; he may lead you down the wrong path. 

Originally, in this image, I thought about adding arms to the head as they were in my original drawings in teh ideas post.  However, when creating this, instead, I added a shining orb that dangled from the head, the magician's magic ball.  Below this, I added an additional head, and this juxtaposition of the two heads above and below really balanced this image.  Here, the settings are again consistent and underexposed by -2.7, and the high contrast here does really work with the head at the top of the image, almost looking divine and beautific.

I will share one more in this post - I cannot share all ten here (I will be adding all of these to my final website portfolio).  The next image I would like to share is XII - Death'.  This was challenging as I did not want to add a scythe or skull, but give that impression of death. Death actually means in the tarot not usually physical death, but the end of something important, so it could be a job, a relationship or something else that has life-changing effects.  It is the end and then rebirth, change and transformation.  So it is a major upheaval and change, but not necessarily bad. 

Again similar setting and underexposing by -2.  In this image, the mass of heads closer to the camera causes a slight blur in the foreground, but this works well; the bodies (or heads, in this case) are buried right here, within you, below you.  The main head at the top of the image is wearing a black cap similar to what was once worn by Judges in the UK when passing a death sentence. 

Judge wearing the Black Cap

The last image I will show is just one of the examples in colour, I shot a few in colour just to see how they looked and felt.

The same setting were used, here just -1 underexposure.  The colours are vibrant and the red jesters' ruff really stands out and complements the red lips of the baby lips.  The purple string does not really work, and if I had shot in colour throughout, I would have changed this to black.  The head below is darker and duller, and this again works at the bottom of the 'wheel', this set-up is for X - 'The Wheel of Fortune'

My next steps will now be looking at curating the best 10 shots, and I may play with creating the tarot cards. Something like this..