52 Ways to See the Middle East in Olgaç Bozalp’s Deck of Cards

A deck of cards has a remarkable degree of constancy. There’s a fixed arrangement of 52 rectangles in four suits of thirteen each. Hence, it’s theoretically possible for a player shuffling their deck in a Cairo café, midst playing Basra, to end up with the same arrangement as another player in a gambling establishment in 19th-century Paris.

Yet the card game, as a practice, is wildly promiscuous. In Egypt, the deck serves Trix, a multi-stage strategic marathon; Basra, with its satisfying table-clearing captures; Shayeb, which punishes the careless with leftover cards. Travel into Lebanon or Syria, and the same fifty-two cards become instruments of Tarneeb, a trick-taking game of calculated bids and partnership signals. In the Gulf, they play Baloot, dense with rules that maybe take years to master.

“The way the structure of the deck allows for endless local variations produces the essence of the Deck of Cards project,” says Romaisa Baddar, Founder and Curator of the Middle East Archive. Launched in 2023, the Deck of Cards returns with a new edition that utilizes the familiar physical structure of playing cards as a medium for photography. 


In this re-edition, a single photograph is affixed to each card. The images, taken by Turkish Photograoher Olgac Bozalp between 2016 and 2024, span 11 countries, Lebanon, Turkey, Iran, Egypt, Oman, Morocco, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Kazakhstan. “I like the idea of seeing my work in different formats,” Bozalp says. “It can end up in people’s houses even if they don’t buy artworks. I sent all the photographs I took from the region throughout the years, and I left it to Romaisaa for the curation.”

The shuffleable deck is portable, durable, and designed for handling. You can lay the cards out and observe them in order, or draw cards at random and stare at them. “Olgaç and I have collaborated on books before, so I’m familiar with his work. His photography is playful, with people posed in vibrant colours, and like a deck of cards, each image invites surprise and interaction.” Baddar tells CairoScene. "When we lie the cards together, you see the similarities but also the dregion long brought together—often prejudicially—by shared religion or geography."