Spirit and Nature
The Minor Arcana

In 1996, I returned to Quebec from India. To continue shooting composite of different images unto the same negative without access to a studio seemed problematic. To tell the truth, I wasn’t interested in complicated studio set-ups anymore.

India showed me that I enjoyed the spontaneity of point and shoot. There was as much magic in photographing in natural light as there was setting up fantastic imagery in a studio.

Still, I was curious as to how I could use that type of intuitive street photography experience to further the creation of my own fantastic images.

So, I experimented.

Inside my 35mm camera and on the film, I drew registration marks so that I could now rewind the roll and stack layers of different images onto the same original negative but, control over the final result would elude me. I would have to trust that the results of these multi-exposures would gel. And it worked...Most of the time. Since my technique was very primitive, on a few occasions registration marks were off, resulting in images marred by the edges of other superimposed frames. After all, this was akin to shooting in complete darkness. I had a vague idea of the final image but I couldn’t see the results until the film was processed.

In general though, the pictures went beyond what I hoped, revealing an innate balance as different layers fell into place creating a harmonious canvas.

As I continued producing these images, I started to make an actual working tarot deck.

Consider these photos part of a set of Minor Arcana cards. Every picture could be used as a tarot card. In 2006 I bought a digital camera. All superimposition would now have to be done in photoshop. I adapted to the digital age by stripping down the essence of my images to their bare minimum, shooting mostly nudes in natural settings.

Some of the more recent images are part of an ongoing series called The Forest of Snakes which I am working on now. The end result will be woven into a wordless graphic novel. Click on the blog, it will take you to the site detailing the making of this book (in french only).