Solution to Homemade Photography
The first thing we notice when we open the puzzle is that it has two sections: "Photographers" and "Photos". Each of the photographers is named, but none of the photos are named or labeled. While the photographer art isn't very recognizable, it's in the photos that we might start to see something familiar. Let's say that we don't immediately recognize them; instead, we notice that some objects are repeated across the images: coins, cups, knives, and pencils, in different amounts. They're cards from the Tarot, Minor Arcana that evoke the four major suits: Coins/Pentacles, Cups, Swords, and Wands. (Specifically, these are the versions depicted in the Rider-Waite tarot deck.)
Once we've identified that these images evoke different Minor Arcana, we can identify them.
Puzzle Image | Arcana Referenced |
---|---|
Five of Coins | |
Two of Cups | |
Three of Swords | |
Ace of Wands | |
Eight of Cups | |
Eight of Wands | |
Nine of Wands |
In addition, looking back at the Photographers, we can now recognize them as the Page of Wands (Redoaks), the Page of Coins (Scroogent), the Page of Swords (Xanderbis), and the Page of Cups (Flourences).
In addition, each name is exactly 14 letters long, and there are 14 ranks in each suit in the Minor Arcana. We can use each photo to index into the appropriate name, giving one letter for each photo.
Minor Arcana | Index into Name |
---|---|
Five of Coins | BLAKESCROOGENT |
Two of Cups | FRANFLOURENCES |
Three of Swords | CLASHXANDERBIS |
Ace of Wands | SIRLARSREDOAKS |
Eight of Cups | FRANFLOURENCES |
Eight of Wands | SIRLARSREDOAKS |
Nine of Wands | SIRLARSREDOAKS |
This spells out ERASURE.