TRESS, Arthur

Arthur Tress was born in Brooklyn in 1940 and sine he was young he started experimenting with the camera. He's well known for a so called "magic realism" photography in which both everyday-life elements and the ones taken from the imaginary are melted together as a trademark of his production.

This particular approach has been especially selected for the series "Dream Collector", a real cornerstone of his career according to which he was able to create an authentic, strong and shocking portrait of the emotional effect on the viewer. After having recorded the dreams of a group of children, he made them listening again to such memories asking them to re-experience those events. Then he could create the best scenary to conceive his photographs. It deals often with surrealistic backgrounds that reveal fears, wishes and the metaphorical imaginary of the children.

His aim was to go beyond the simple documentation of facts, to create works able to instill an ambiguous portrait of reality through the addition of concrete elements with a metaphysical connotation. Such choice disorientates the viewer and introduces him in a dream-like atmosphere, following a strategy used also for later works.

"The photographic image has great possibilities. The magical photograph attempts to go beyond the immediate context of the recorded experience into the realm of the indefinable. The photographer as magician is acutely aware of the multiplicity of the association submerged in the appearance of the objective world".

Woman with dog, NY, 1976, vintage gelatin silver print, cm 18.5 x 20.5 ca.
Museum Curator, NY, 1975, vintage gelatin silver print, cm 18.5 x 20.5 ca.
Boy with Plaster Rabbit, Florida, 1975, vintage gelatin silver print, cm 18.5 x 20.5 ca.
Two Lesbians, NY, 1974 vintage gelatin silver print, cm 18.5 x 20.5 ca.
Flood Dream, Ocean City, New Jersey, 1971, silver print, cm 28x35 ca.
Teenager in Telephone, Bronx, 1969, silver print, cm 28x35 ca., ed.50
Girl in white, Cape May, 1971, silver print, cm 28x35 ca., ed.50
Claire de lune (Breezy Point, New York), 1975, vintage, cm 30x30
Flying Dream (Queens, New York), 1971, silver print, cm 48.3x47.6 ca., ed.50
Adam in the park, California, 1982, silver print, cm 28x35 ca., ed.50
Boy with Giant Ball, New York, 1972, silver print, cm 28x35 ca., ed.50
Kent on slide, New York, 1978, silver print, cm 38.1x38.1 ca.
Shadow, The Journey, 1975, silver print, cm 28x35 ca., ed.25
Boot Fantasy, New York, 1979
Catastrophic Expectations (Scarborough, New York) 1975, silver print, cm 28x35 ca., ed.50
Shadow, The Pilgrim, 1974, silver print, cm 28x35 ca., ed.50
Girl with Eagle, 1973, silver print, cm 28x35 ca., ed.50
Girl in aquarium, 1971, silver print, cm 28x35 ca., ed.50
Woman with dog, New York, 1976, vintage, cm 18.5x20.5 ca.
Stephan Brecht, Bride and Groom, New York, 1970, silver print, cm 28x35 ca., ed.50
Boy in water under Bridge, New York, 1970, silver print, cm 28x35 ca., ed.50

TRESS, Arthur

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