Photography & Photographic Views on Playing Cards & Games

Photography has supplied subjects for playing cards since early souvenir and bromide-print issues. Publishers draw on landscapes and architecture, wildlife and transport, portrait and pin-up, ethnographic themes, museum collections and brand promotions, alongside artist projects. Formats range from small image sets repeated across suits to all-different cards with captions, dates and credits. Many use borderless or full-bleed faces and varied print methods, with images licensed from photographers, archives and agencies across countries and decades.