Katalin Pusztaszeri

Childhood Nightmares

Nightmares are manifestations of real or fictitious doubts,  anxious thoughts, quiet fears, exaggerated negative emotions towards others; people, animals, monstrous creatures, objects, or even determining life-events mixing with fragments of reality. These intense feelings can be easily forgotten or could persist as a long-term atrocity in a child's life, hiding back in the subconscious, coming out time to time and frequently disturbing the peacefulness of sleep daily.

A strange looking object, the deep darkness in the cellar, a frightening adult-face, a traumatizing event or situation, the unusual touch or texture of things, some tricks of child- imagination, distorted perceptions, illusions of the child-self. Looking back to the past for retracing nightmares of an early stage of my life, I created this series of photographs based on the memories of the most gruesome and absurd bad dreams which had been dominating my childhood for years. With the intention of using harsh contrasts of shadows and lights, by creating grim almost suffocating atmosphere or choosing unusual angles, I aimed to pull the viewers into the vaguely darkened world to experience the same chill as when a child is passing through nightmares.