“Along with several others of his cohort, Arthur Tress spearheaded the resurgence of the directorial mode in the 1970s, as well as his generation's engagement with previously taboo subject matter. With his unique blend of documentary and surrealist approaches, he has made a major contribution to his medium.”
—A. D. Coleman, photography critic and historian
“From poignant studies of the country’s Appalachian communities to the urban wreckages and disused spaces of New York, the publication reveals the emergence of Tress’s unique visual language, culminating in the dreamscapes and Surrealistic portraits of The Dream Collector (1972) and Theater of the Mind (1976), two early landmark series.”
~Rowland Bagnall, The Art Newspaper
“This is a great introduction to Tress’s work, accompanied by accessible texts that highlight the key themes of the images.”
~Colin Pantall, PhMuseum
“All in all, this photobook allows readers and viewers multiple leisurely excursions into the fascinating world of Arthur Tress, as we follow him from his own brand of realism all the way to a surrealistic world that stimulates our imagination.”
~Gerhard Clausing, PhotoBook Journal
“Some of the most interesting material in the Getty catalogue comes from the decade before Tress made his name in the 1970s. He travelled widely in the sixties and his work of that period was straightforwardly documentary; his greatest hero was Cartier-Bresson and he regularly submitted work to Magnum. In 1968, he made a powerful set of pictures of the rural poor in Appalachia, which sit between the work made by Doris Ullman in the 1930s and Shelby Lee Adams in the 1990s.”
~Ian Walker, Source
