New York City Street Dailies playing cards

Freed from the confines of exhibition walls and book pages, "New York City Street Dailies" utilizes the structure of a deck of playing cards to engage visual audiences in novel, atypical ways. Each card features a different portrait of a New Yorker, and each suit comprises sets of some of my favorite muses: spades are grannies, diamonds are workers, clubs are twins & sets, and hearts are quintessential, beloved NYC characters. Organized typologically, the suits encourage viewers to focus on all that unites us, while cultivating an appreciation for the essential role our differences provide, which is to add texture, to make life richer, deeper, more varied and vivid, and to create opportunities for personal and collective evolution.

Culled from my iPhone 6 Instagram series, "Street Dailies," ongoing since 2012 with 2,000 images and counting, the playing cards present the 54 portraits at the same small dimension they were originally conceived in and shared, roughly 2.5” x 3.5”. Printed on premium 300gsm card stock and housed in a tuck box, the visual object allows viewers to hold, sequence, isolate, and otherwise interact with photography in uniquely subjective ways. The physical form at one with the subject, "New York City Street Dailies" exemplifies my longtime penchant for making connections with and within humanity.

Exhibition of the series comprises unframed enlarged versions of each card, approximately 6” x 9” digital C-prints on Fuji Crystal Archive paper mounted on matte board, and multiple enlarged versions of the back of the cards. Numerous regular-sized playing card decks are also present for creative placement and use within the exhibition space.

New York City Street Dailies playing cards by Amy Touchette

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