Arthur Tress The Dream Collector
photographs by Arthur Tress
text by John Minahan
Westover Publishing Company, 1972, 128 pages
ISBN 0-87858-032-8

After graduating from college, Arthur Tress spent some 10 years traveling around the world photographing a variety of different subjects before he became interested in dreams and dream phenomena. While researching dreams, and remembering his own dreams as a child, he decided to explore the realm of children's dreams.

With tape recorder in hand, he would ask children to recall their most vivid dreams. Upon hearing a suitable dream, he would then ask the child if they would be willing to recreate the dream experience for a photograph. The result are the eerie, otherworldly photographs collected in this book.

What sets Tress apart from most other photographers who create fantastical photographs is that Tress does not use any fancy photo or print manipulations. These are "straight" photographs; their dream-like quality comes entirely from careful selection of props, location, and posing.

Novelist John Minahan provides a useful introduction to Tress and his work, along with descriptive captions for each photo.

These unique black & white photos are powerful and often disturbing. Recommended.