What Does Your Future Hold? The Queer Tarot Deck Tells All

Wondering what 2022 has in store for you? Well, look no further than Joie Rey Cohen’s Queer Tarot Deck. The collaborative project features portraits of queer drag performers, artists, actors, comedians, and other creatives as the 78 tarot archetypes. The deck highlights the many identities and intersectionality of the LGBTQ community in surreal photographic compositions.

Joie Rey Cohen has been working as a photographer and artist since 1989. Their work is an exploration of layers of identity, the masks and disguises we wear, and how we show ourselves to others. Finding the intertwinement of their artistic message and archetypes fascinating, a tarot deck project was the perfect fit in their body of work. 

After the stir-craziness of quarantine, Cohen set out to find their muses for the Queer Tarot Deck. This was no small feat, however, seeing as Cohen had only just moved to the Denver area before everything shut down due to COVID-19. Nevertheless, the queer community had their back. By the end of the project, Cohen had made 75 new friends who not only volunteered to pose for the deck, but worked intimately with Cohen on the cards’ creation.

“All my fine art photography is collaboration, so we came up with a concept together,” Cohen says. “And they would say, ‘What do you think of this? What do you think of that?’” Each subject had a hand in their cards’ unique design, which pushed the boundaries of classic tarot archetypal depictions. 

A few of the cards feature photographs Cohen has taken in the past that hold special significance with them. “One, a friend of mine that was a performer from the Bay Area, died while I was doing the project, and so I wanted to memorialize them as one of the queens in the deck,” Cohen shares. “They were a really amazing performer, like, genderqueer, gender fuck … just awesome.” 

The amazing response Joie received for their Queer Tarot Deck has already begun to inspire future projects. They’re currently seeking subjects for an upcoming book celebrating non-cisgender identities. So, if you are an interested nonbinary, trans, genderfluid, genderqueer, or generally non-cis individual in the Denver, Boulder, Springs area, contact them at joierey@gmail.com! The multi talented photographer also does headshots for actors, musicians, performers, and more, as well as consultant work with artists on their bios and artist statements.

Start your year off right by supporting a queer artist and having a peek at your past, present, and future! Find the Queer Tarot Deck and Cohen’s other works on their website, photosbyjoierey.com.