City Gorged with Dreams
I began to research into surrealism and photography in the late 1970s and initially that research was very broad. It was not until 1988 that I registered for a DPhil at the University of Sussex, working with David Mellor.
It gradually became clear that the subject was simply too large to deal with in one text and, by the time I submitted my thesis in 1995, its had been refined to ‘Paris as the Site of Surrealist Photography 1924-1939’.
A copy of that thesis is in the University of Sussex Library and an electronic version is held by the British Library. Access is presently unavailable following the cyber-attack on the BL, but hopefully, when it is restored, it can be ordered via the Ethos system (ethos.bl.uk).
Converting this thesis into a book was also a lengthy process, involving many negotiations and cul-de-sacs. The text was refined and edited from 100,000 words to a more manageable 70,000 words and was eventually published by Manchester University Press in 2002.
The book is now out of print, but hopefully used copies are available. Oddly, if you try to look it up on Amazon, it will take you a book on the Ulster Unionist Party (www.amazon.co.uk/City-Gorged-Dreams-Documentary-Photography)
Here I have included a scan of the contents page, as well as a selection of reviews of the book.
I have also added a new essay here. Starting with the title City Gorged with Dreams, it explores questions to do with translation and the shift that one writer made when they referred to the book as City of Gorged Dreams.
