The Dream Collector Preview

The Dream Collector Preview

by Jennifer McMillan

Open Ended

Answer one of the following questions:

What is the worst nightmare that you can remember?

OR 

Do you have any frightening or unsettling reoccurring dreams? 

​The Dream Collector

​Childhood dreams were what interested American photographer Arthur Tress when, in the late 1960s and 70s, he created his psychoanalytic “Dream Collector” series of images, which captured children’s nightmares in terrifying detail.

​Artist’s statement:

“Dreams or nightmares were collected by conversations with children in schools, streets, or neighborhood playgrounds. The children would be asked means of acting out their visions or to suggest ways of making them into unique artworks… These inventions often reflect the child’s inner life, his hopes, and fears, as well as his symbolic transmutation of the external environment, his home or school, into manageable forms.”

Artist’s statement:

“The purpose of these dream photographs is to show how the child’s creative imagination is constantly transforming his existence into magical symbols for unexpressed states of feeling or being.”

Poll

Which of these images do you think MOST captures the feeling of fear?

Poll

Which of these images do you think MOST captures the feeling of fear?

Poll

Which of these images do you think MOST captures the feeling of fear?

Poll

Which of these images do you think MOST captures the feeling of fear?

Poll

Which of these images do you think MOST captures the feeling of fear?

Poll

Which of these images do you think MOST captures the feeling of fear?

Poll

Which of the following do you think makes these images invoke fear the MOST?

• setting

• subject

• character

• imagery

Poll

Do you think that the photographs in this collection are closer in tone to "The Fall of the House of Usher" or "Where is Here"?  Explain your answer.

• The Fall of the House of Usher

• Where is Here