The Lemorand deck of fortune telling cards has become my inspiration for a digital imaging project. I first encountered a reference to these cards, which I knew nothing about, in Michael Chabon's book, Moonglow. Chabon describes how his grandmother used the deck to tell him stories when Chabon was a child. I looked up the reference to a 36 card fortune telling deck and discovered a whole history of Lenormand.
The cards trace back to The Game of Hope, a card game created by Johann Kaspar Hechtel in 1799. However, they became known as the Lenormand in the Napoleanic era when Marie Anne Adelaide Lenormand, the great French fortune teller adopted them for readings. Various versions of the deck appeared and are now in circulation--just check out the variety available for purchase online.
I adopted the tall portrait format, with an image on top and numerals and suits below for my series. The images come from travels near and far. These are works in progress and will evolve as I develop ideas.