Japanese street photographer Shin Noguchi’s images have been shown in exhibits worldwide and featured in many renowned publications. He has been part of Leica’s 70th-anniversary M-System campaign and its recent 100th-anniversary celebrations. Now Noguchi’s striking work has found another home, and it’s an unusual one: playing cards.
Noguchi has teamed up with American designer playing card company Fulton’s Playing Cards for a deck meant to feel like carrying a compact Noguchi photo book. Fulton’s has worked with a wide range of collaborators over the years, including Disney, NASA, and different Hollywood cinematic franchises.
“Each card features one of my photographs with almost no cropping, making the deck feel like a small photo book that you can carry around in your pocket,” Noguchi says.
“You can simply enjoy looking through the photographs, or of course use them as ordinary playing cards. You might even come up with your own games, such as matching the subjects or scenes that appear in the photographs,” the photographer adds.
Despite a very accomplished career in fine art, Noguchi says he’s very happy to have his work featured on playing cards, as they let more people see his photos. Noguchi notes that while it’s great for people to see his shots in magazines, newspapers, and on exhibit, a deck of cards like this lets more people interact with his images in everyday life.
“Through my work, I hope to share, even in a small way, the beauty I find in everyday life in Japan with as many people as possible,” Noguchi says.
The Shin Noguchi playing cards are available now in two different decks. The standard “Fuji Box,” as its name suggests, features one of Noguchi’s images with Mt. Fuji in the background. This variant is available for $25.
Then there’s a second, special edition version with a box featuring Shin’s young daughter playing a card game while wearing an Oni mask. It is quite meta packaging, as it turns out. The limited edition version is $35. Only 50 copies of this special edition packaging are available for purchase.
“Keep walking, photographing, and expressing,” Noguchi implores.
Image creditsShin Noguchi
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