True Dreams

Do photographers dream differently? In her new photo series, Julia Baier, a Berlin-based Leica photographer, has put together a collection of motifs that reflect her dreams. The series is being presented for the first time on her newly redesigned homepage. We are also presenting a selection of the images here. She spoke with us about her ideas and approach for the series.

LFI: How long have you been writing down your dreams?
Julia Baier: I always have a notebook lying at my bedside, and I regularly jot down my thoughts in it. First thing in the morning, right after I wake up, is the best time, because then the dreams are still clear and undistorted. I've always dreamt a lot, and it seemed natural for me to write them down. The more frequently you write down your dreams, the better your memory becomes. I've trained it a bit over the years.

When did the idea of connecting your dreams to your pictures turn into a series?
My dreams frequently deal with taking photographs. Actually, I’ve always wanted to do a series where I re-photograph pictures I'd photographed in a dream; as well as those pictures I'd missed taking – because the camera was broken; or I'd forgotten to load a film in it; or I'd simply forgotten to bring my camera with me. However, as a photographer, I don't like to stage my motifs, so I'd never got round to realising the idea. Then, at some point, I had the idea of searching through my existing pictures that corresponded to strong dreams; pictures that produced a similar feeling or provoked the same kind of questions. I finally began the series, during the first lockdown. At that time, due to the consequent deceleration, I began to dream even more intensely than before, which produced the ultimate spark that got me started. By the way, the series is still on-going, and I've already collected more good dream material.

How do you find the pictures that fit your dreams?
The work is very associative and intuitive. On the whole, I usually take the dream material as my starting point. Then I remember existing pictures in my archive, or I browse through it, until I discover an unexpected text-image combination. It's a process where I combine, discard and sometimes also take new pictures. For example, I've been regularly photographing a house, overgrown in lush green, for a long-term project; and it seemed perfect for the Paris dream. So I cycled over there, specifically to take landscape-format pictures for the series. In some rare cases, the process works the other way round; I take existing pictures that I find very dreamlike and look for a dream text that fits them. That is considerably more difficult, since my absolute starting point is that I really must have had the dreams, and I don't want to rewrite them. I am really tied to my dream-reality, and I don't invent anything additional.

Do you dream in colour or in black and white?
Curiously enough, my photo group and I discussed the question of whether dreams are in black and white, or in colour, twenty years ago. One of my friends was convinced that dreams occur in black and white. I am a defender of the contrary view, because I can remember the colours clearly. Just recently, I dreamt about a wild boar, and it was definitely wearing a blue jumper! It was an unforgettably funny colour image, and the rest of the scenario was also in colour. I'm prepared to place a bet on it! I do agree, however, that in certain dreams colour doesn't play a role; and a dream could seem to be in black and white. So, I won’t make a categorical statement. That's why I've decided to allow both in my series; whichever best conveys the dream or the mood.

Was the redesign of your homepage the ideal opportunity to look through your archive again?
Yes, that it was. A new website always represents a new beginning; and it's fun to dig through the various layers of archives, to get lost in your own photo story, and to wallow in memories. Furthermore, in the best case scenario, maybe old buried treasures will rise to the surface and offer new perspectives.

Thank you, and best wishes for a good night's sleep!

First image: I’m dreaming my head off. Tonight in my dream I was present at the birth of a calf, which for a short time was a colt. Interestingly, it didn’t come OUT of the cow, but disappeared INSIDE her. In the end it lay exhausted on the ground and was licked by a horse. How changeable things are in dreams!