Photographer Alice Smeets recreates several scenes found on tarot cards in the streets of Haiti.
Entitled "The Ghetto Tarot" photographer Alice Smeets recreates the popular Rider-Waite tarot deck with help from a Haitian group called called Atis Rezistans.
Using only materials readily available in the slums of Haiti the Atis Rezistans recreate several tarot cards that often include symbolism from Voodoo. The purpose was to embody the important meaning and impact that the culture of Voodoo has on the select few.
The use of the term ghetto for this project is explained as:
... [as a name ] to provoke a discussion around the topic, to have people question their own assumptions about what the ghetto really is and to change the often negative connotation that the word implies in our culture into a positive one. The name of the Ghetto Tarot is inspired by the "Ghetto Biennale", which is an invitation by Atis Rezistans to visiting Western and non-Western artists to come to Haiti and create art in collaboration with them to produce a show at the end. Atis Rezistans use trash to create art with their own visions that are a reflection of the beauty they see hidden within the waste.
