Mountain Dream Tarot

Considered to be the first complete photographic Tarot pack, it took the photographer Bea Nettles five years (1970-75) to create without the aid of digital tools. The idea came to her in a dream after she had seen line drawings in a copy of A.E. Waite’s “The Pictorial Key to the Tarot”. The images are based largely on those to be found in the (Rider-) Waite Tarot. Family members and friends from Penland School in North Carolina (where Bea Nettles was studying) were her models. Bea herself appears as the Queen of Pentacles.

A monochrome colour scheme was used, with one colour for each suit and another for the major arcana. Those colours extend right to the edge of each card. The back pattern of stars is different on each card. This, the first commercial edition, is thought to have had a print run of 850 packs. Reprints were issued in 2001, 2012 and 2019 • See the box

Above: Mountain Dream Tarot created by Bea Nettles, distributed by Light Impressions Corporation, Rochester, NY, USA, 1975. 78 cards + 1 title card + folded information sheet + sheet listing other titles, in drop-lid box. Size: 94 x 115 mm. © B.Nettles 1975.

The set is considered important enough for the Metropolitan Museum of Art to have acquired a copy in 1977. The cards are also in the collection of the George Eastman Museum in Rochester, NY. The 3 of Swords image was used as a disc graphic on Bruce Springsteen’s album Magic (2007)

• See the leaflet

References and Links

Kaplan, Stuart R. The Encyclopedia of Tarot, Vol. 1. New York, USA: U.S. Games Systems, Inc.; 1978. pp 264-5.

Bea Nettles: Store►

George Eastman Museum - Gallery Talk: Artist Bea Nettles & Curator Jamie M. Allen►

Youtube: Bea Nettles & Her Mountain Dream Tarot►

Youtube: Bea Nettles’ photographic tarot deck►