Boy in Burnt-Out Furniture Store, Newark, New Jersey

In the late 1960s, Tress developed a uniquely expressive style that he termed "social surrealism." These images represented a provocative union of reality and artifice, documentary fact and expressionistic interpretation. This hybrid approach was required, Tress felt, to express "the extreme social realities of these contradictory and violent times." This photograph was made while Tress was exploring the areas in which children played in Newark, New Jersey. After finding an old advertising sign in an abandoned building, he recruited a nearby child to pose with it, creating a poignant contrast between the dream and reality of a comfortable life.