ST. GEORGE — From a woman burning a bra to a driver hitting pedestrians, one photographer has taken the mysticism of tarot cards and applied his own modern twist. And it’s causing quite the stir.

“This is my first solo show,” said Darren Edwards, the photographer behind the Skeptics Tarot Art Exhibition at Art Provides. “It was a big project with 22 big conceptual photos.” 

Initially, Edwards said he couldn’t understand how academically-thinking people could buy into the mysticism of tarot cards, so he asked some of his believing friends to explain it to him.

“They said, ‘I don’t use it to predict my future, I use it as a tool for self-reflection, so if I draw the Page of Cups, I know what that represents, and I think, how can that apply to my life?’” he said. “I love the idea of using it as a tool to reflect on yourself because that’s what I do with art and literature.” 

As he looked at tarot cards more introspectively, he realized many of the ideas felt very outdated. The High Priestess, for example, is mostly about the High Priestess initiating someone into the path of womanhood. The symbol above her head represents the maiden, the mother and the crone, which is supposed to represent the lifespan of a woman. 

“You’re this virtuous maiden, then you fulfill your life purpose by having a baby, and then you’re done and you’re a crone,” Edwards said. “That’s so offensive. It’s so outdated. I wanted to do an updated version of that.”

The Skeptics Tarot Art Exhibit is based on the 22 major arcana cards – the face cards for Tarot. Instead of The High Priestess ushering someone into the feminine and womanhood like the original tarot card, Edwards moved the image into the feminist movement by showing a woman burning a bra. 

The Magician card depicts what Edwards sees as modern magic — math.

“Math is magic,” he said. “And I tried to be diverse in representative of the people that I picked for my models. I wanted really badly for it to be a young girl because of the idea that women were held out of math for so long. So she’s actually locked out of the math classroom and is doing math on the window.”

The Wheel of Fortune photo depicts a girl driving a car with a license plate that reads “#BLESSED.” Behind her, people lay in the road as if she hit them.

“The whole idea of #BLESSED, it’s such an excuse to not have to reexamine social constructs,” he said. “Like, ‘Oh, I’m just blessed.’ No, there are people being stepped on so you can be where you are. So I love the idea of like, who has the wheel of fortune run over on its way to you.”

All photos were taken in Washington County, and locations include FeelLove Coffee, St. George Academy, Dixie Rock, the bar at Woodash Rye, the courthouse steps, an alley behind Main Street and more. Almost all the models in the 22-conceptual photo exhibit are Washington County locals. Edward’s own 7-year-old son also is featured.

The story behind the artist

Edwards said he’s always been creative and began writing poetry in third grade. In high school, he became the de facto photographer for his skate group but never thought photography would become his career.

He attended Utah State University where he worked on his masters’s degree in literature and writing. When one of his writing pieces was accepted for publication, the company asked for a few photos to go along with it. At the time, he didn’t have a nice camera and instead asked a friend to take pictures for him.

“They had accepted the piece,” Edward said. “When they got the photos, they turned the whole piece down. I never again want to have my work hinge on somebody else’s work like that.”

At that point, he purchased a professional camera and began learning the craft, then went on to work as the managing editor for the Southern Utah Independent for two years with a focus on photojournalism. 

He transitioned into teaching English courses at Utah State for three years, then Utah Tech University, formerly Dixie State, for four years. When he burned out from teaching, he started his own business, which included photography, writing and graphic design.

He’s since been back to teaching and also published two books – “Utah Sport Climbing: Stories and Reflections on the Bolting of the Beehive State,” and “Supernatural Lore of Southern Utah.”

“This, this is the fun stuff,” he said pointing at his photography exhibit. “This is the stuff I’d rather do full time – conceptual, pop art. I love it because as a writer, I love metaphors and things so much. Those types of photography allow you to bring in metaphors a lot more.”

The Skeptic’s Tarot Art Exhibition is currently on display inside Art Provides at 35 N Main St #306 in St. George. The exhibition runs from now until June 24.

Edwards is also the featured artist of the month at Arts to Zion, the art gallery downstairs from Art Provides. For more information, visit his website or follow @skepticstarot on Instagram.

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