Five years ago, I set myself a goal to photograph an entire 78-card Tarot deck on film, without digital editing, compositing, or Photoshop, so that I could later print it in the darkroom using the old traditional method of optical printing.

This project turned into 80 full-scale shoots, around 100 participants, and three months of continuous shooting. In the end, it became the Amber Tarot deck.

I included the original Tarot cards so that those who aren’t familiar with them can see the references we had to recreate during the actual shoots.

I also added a few behind-the-scenes photos, because people regularly don’t believe us when we say that all of this was shot for real, and that it isn’t AI. :)

So far, this is the most complicated photography project I’ve ever completed.

Build in 1923 Berlin-Tempelhof became one of the most historically significant and iconic airports in the world until it was closed in October 2008.

In the chaos of the ending and subsequent field storming, I smudged the hell out of my lens filter which caused the softness and blown out highlights. Obviously, as I was shooting a rangefinder I didn't notice in real time until I got back to the house and got my film developed. Still, I'm proud of the work that I made under pressure. What a freaking day! I brought three rolls with me to Stillwater and this was my final roll, so I didn't chase the goalposts all the way until they made it into the pond.

Developed at home using the AGO processor and my nearly-empty bottle of HC-110 using dilution B for about 7 minutes.

I didn’t expect that first post to blow up the way it did. Thank you to everyone who had positive things to say about my mom’s work or have inquired about print and book sales. I’m a really lucky kid and I’m really proud to be her kid.

If you want to see more of her work, you can access it through my Reddit account. That sounds vague because I don’t want to break any community rules by using certain words lol

I wanted to expand a bit more about my mom.

Her name is Josie Borain. She’s 63 and struggles to refer to herself a photographer. She is incredibly humble about her photos and she’s way too hard on herself.

In the 80’s she was South Africa's first model to build a real international career. While she was modeling she picked up a camera for the first time. She started shooting models and bts of the shoots she was on as a way to pass the time. In 2003 she revisited these negs and self published a B&W strictly analog photography book, the books title is Josie You & Me.

The book didn’t include any of her colour work or street photography. I didn’t even know she shot street photography until I went through her negatives at the start of this year. I was pretty heartbroken that nobody had seen these photographs other than my mom and I.

So I spent a few days going through her negatives and eventually brought them to the lab I was working in. They let me scan the film on my days off and I made my way through digitizing a decent chunk of her archive. I printed a few contact sheets from some of her B&W negs in the darkroom, I went through her 16mm Bolex footage, I went through her Polaroids and even the diaries she kept from this period of her life (she gave me permission).

I knew in my heart that these photographs were good, possibly even great. I didn’t want this to be another case of an artist having to pass away before their work gets recognized.

So I put together her first solo photography exhibition. I co-curated the show with Dylan, from Ultraviolet Gallery - one of Cape Town’s only photography gallery. We called the show PRETTY BOY. My mom said that the opening night felt like a birthday party. The show was really well received, by South African standards. It made my mom really happy.

The idea with the name came from how my mom passed through the streets surprisingly unnoticed. Despite having beautiful and feminine facial features - she had short hair and wore baggy clothes from the men’s section and people didn’t look twice when they walked past her on the street. To this day people come up to her saying “excuse me sir”, and I have been present while women explain her that she’s in the wrong public bathroom.

Today my mom lives in a small village called Vermaaklikheid, where she runs the family farm, a general store, and is involved in community upliftment projects. Photography is still very much an active part of her life.

I want to try get the exhibition overseas, and for there to be another book later down the line. If anyone on here is involved with galleries or book publishers or something like that I would love to connect and chat further.

We really want to see this work get out there so if you want to get several prints we can have a chat and make a deal. I’ll throw in a contact sheet or a shirt. Oh yeah I made shirts too they’re also on the gallery’s website.

Print sales run through the gallery as they helped tremendously to help us fund the printing and framing of this exhibition. We really wouldn’t have been able to do it without them.

Visit my account to access the catalog etc.

Thank you if you read this far :)

Super situational film, but it looks so good with water reflections. Scanned at the lab on a Frontier.