Putting A Punch In Your Poker Game!

Put a punch in your poker game with a set of Brooklyn-based photographer Amy Touchette’s new NYC Street Dailies playing cards. The deck of cards are great whether you’re a photographer, a native New Yorker or just a global citizen with an appreciation for fun and the universality of the human experience.

Each standard poker-sized deck of playing cards features unique portraits from NYC Street Dailies – a critically acclaimed series of Touchette’s work that is a celebration of the denizens of New York City, with each suit dedicated to some of her favorite muses: grannies (spades), workers (diamonds), twins & sets (clubs) and beloved characters (hearts).

Touchette has been shooting the series since 2012 in and around (primarily) the Williamsburg, Greenpoint, and Bed- Stuy neighborhoods of Brooklyn. They’re candid, unposed, iPhone photos – raw and uncompromising. What her photos reveal is a portrait of a bustling city and a unique perspective that feels closer to reality than most photojournalism you’ll see today. The series has been widely published in magazines and newspapers, and an exhibition of the work was mounted in 2014 at the legendary Max Fish Bar and Art Gallery in the city.

According to Touchette: “It’s so easy to fixate on what divides us—ethnicity, gender, age, class, personal circumstances—instead of the profundity of what unites us. In New York I’ve found the most affirmative traces of humanity. The palpable relationships we have with family and friends, the way we gather and act collectively on the street, on the subway, on the job, while enjoying life and caring for our young: it’s all wonderfully similar.   Everyday I look for evidence that we do wholly echo each other despite our myriad differences, that we do have connections far and wide, including an appreciation for individuality, and every day, much to my deep delight, I find that evidence. Street Dailies currently comprises over 1,000 images and counting and are released regularly on Instagram.”

About the cards Touchette writes: “I love the idea of delivering images that have nothing to do with gallery walls or photo books. It just feels really liberating and inclusive to put them in a form everyone knows so well, and that is cheap, portable, and fun — literally, a game!”

A public launch party for Amy Touchette’s NYC Street Dailies deck of playing cards will take place on Thursday, December 5 at 7pm at the Max Fish Bar and Art Gallery. Adding to the fun and celebration, Max Fish will hang enlarged versions of the playing cards on the gallery walls. So grab a pack now – but pencil this date into your diary!

Images from Touchette’s latest, unreleased series – “Personal Ties: Street Portraits of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn” – will debut at the National Portrait Gallery in London from November, as part of the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize exhibition. She teaches in the full-time program at the International Center of Photography (ICP) and is represented by ClampArt in New York City.

Get the cards here!

—-Samantha Reinders