in some smothering dreams

Camus Wyatt
with an essay by Deidra Sullivan

Published by Rim Books, June 2024

120pp, with offset duotone
Hardcover wrapped cloth, section sewn
257 x 207 x 17mm
ISBN: 978-1-99-116523-7

What can photographs say about the unimaginable? in some smothering dreams takes our gaze to the First World War, where official photographer Henry Armytage Sanders created the most extensive visual record of New Zealanders on the Western Front. But rather than being an archive of slaughter, Sanders’ photographs often depict the faces of men behind the lines and the landscapes left in the war’s wake.

Using details from the original glass plate negatives, Camus Wyatt reimagines these photographs as places of strange beauty, capturing both a profound quiet and a looming sense of dread. With an essay by Deidra Sullivan on the history of the Sanders collection and the possible meanings of their reimagining, in some smothering dreams is a moving contemplation of the pathways between image, archive, the lives of others, and the limits of our understanding.

“(Sanders’) photographs are deeply evocative of New Zealand’s involvement in this global conflict and of the experience of those who served. The significance of the collection is illustrated by its inclusion on UNESCO’s Memory of the World register. Public engagement with these photographs has always been strong, but by revisiting the original negatives and drawing attention to the quiet detail captured within them, this publication will present a reinterpretation that is sure to deepen both personal and collective connections with these images.”

—Natalie Marshall, former Curator of Photographs at the Alexander Turnbull Library

Camus Wyatt is an independent photographer and doctoral student in art history based in Wellington Te Whanganui-a-Tara. His practice often examines the connections between thought and place, perception and form. He is drawn to the possibilities of change and chance, unplanned moments and the materiality of analogue photography. He has had five previous solo exhibitions. His most recent work was Time is the longest distance, a public art installation for Wellington City Council of sixteen large-scale lightbox images exploring the relationship between photography, memory and place.

Deidra Sullivan teaches on the Creative Technologies programmes at the Wellington Institute of Technology and has also taught at Massey University and Victoria University, tutoring in the Art History Departments. She has an enduring interest in photographic history and processes, and during 2020-2021 took time out from teaching to take the position of Curator, Photographic Archive, at the Alexander Turnbull Library. Her MFA considered the connections we make between historical knowledge, personal and cultural memory, and imagination when exploring collections of photographs. Her photographic practice engages with cameraless and lens-less photography.