Most of us have at least one unforgettable childhood dream or nightmare that branded itself permanently into our memories. These powerful and imaginative 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.

According to the artist’s statement, “Dreams or nightmares were collected by conversations with children in schools, streets, or neighbourhood playgrounds. The children would be asked means of acting out their visions or to suggest ways of making them into visual actualities… 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.”

More info: arthurtress.com | blogs.getty.edu (h/t: petapixel)