Series I. Dream Collector consists of 153 black and white prints, dating from 1967 to 1983, with the bulk of the photographs being undated. Based upon a collaboration with a friend, Richard Lewis, Tress asked "children and [his] friends what dreams they remembered from childhood. [Tress] was looking for mythological archetypical, kind of nightmarish images … that kind of became [his] trademark for the next 20 years, that kind of surreal disturbing photography. After listening to the children, Tress would take them to locations around the city where they could turn their ideas into photographs… The images … are remarkably simple and that makes them both disquieting and powerful; the overall effect is like being unable to awaken from a nightmare. They grab the viewer with a shocking immediacy because there are no distractions such as elaborate studio sets, expensive models or sophisticated darkroom tricks." (Meltzer).

--Meltzer, Steve. "The Dream Collector: How Arthur Tress' Images of Dreams and Nightmares Changed Photography," Shutterbug, 2018 January 16 (https://www.shutterbug.com/content/dream-collector-how-arthur-tress%E2%80%99-images-children%E2%80%99s-dreams-and-nightmares-changed).

Series II. Elmer consists of four black and white prints which document Tress's wanderings through the city with poet, playwright and actor Elmer L. Kline. According to the dust jacket for Elmer Over Time, about twice a week for a year, Tress and Kline spent a few hours wandering around New York City, and Tress would photograph him, letting multiple personas shine through. These images date from 1977 to 1978

Series III. Facing Up consists of 38 black and white prints, dating from 1975 to 1982, and features photographs of the male nude, described by Stanford as "openly gay photographic fantasies" and described by Carla Williams as "Tress's first explicitly conscious exploration of his sexuality in which he exclusively photographed male nudes." In Williams's article, Tress described this series as "the more intimate spheres of a gay sexuality and homoerotic fantasy life." Images that were part of the Facing Up series were published in the work, Male of the Species: Four Decades of Photography by Arthur Tress, which was published in 1999.

--Williams, Carla. "Tress, Arthur (b. 1940)" (http://www.glbtqarchive.com/arts/tress_a_A.pdf)

Series IV. Fish Tank Sonata consists of four Cibachrome color prints, dating from 1988 to 1989. According to Judith Sims, for "four years, [Tress] lugged a 100-year-old aquarium from one U.S. Coast to the other, filling it with assorted doodads and knickknacks from the '40s and the '50s. At each stop, [he] would hunt down this 'flea market trash,' assemble it in the aquarium and capture it in a picture. The resulting 120 slides make up a surreal allegory … in which a fisherman learns about life and environmental responsibility from a red snapper." While the series consisted of 120 images, only four are represented in this collection.

--Sims, Judith. "Fish Tank Sonata," Los Angeles Times, August 16, 1992 (https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-08-16-tm-6832-story.html)

Series V. Male of the Species consists of five black and white prints, dating from 1994 to 1995, that appear to have been selected from Tress's oeuvre for an exhibit entitled "Male of the Species," held at the David Aden Gallery (Venice Beach) from December 3 to 19, 1999. The prints, featuring images of homoerotic fantasy, were also published in the volume, Male of the Species: Four Decades of Photography by Arthur Tress, and include images from, at least, the Facing Up series.

Series VI. Open Space consists of 35 black and white prints, dating from 1968 to 1977. These photographs, a project resulting from a commission from the New York State Council on the Arts, "bears witness to the destructive results of corporate resource extraction. Tress began using his camera to raise environmental awareness about the economic and human costs of pollution. Focusing on New York City, he began to photograph the neglected fringes of the urban waterfront with a straight documentary approach" (Akimbo). In an interview, Tress states that Open Space, "explored abandoned New York City spaces with the potential to become a park for kids or recreational area. Mostly along the waterfront, or abandoned railroad yards, or rooftops…" (Richard Photo Lab).

--Akimbo. "Arthur Tress: The Tip of an Iceberg" https://akimbo.ca/listings/arthur-tress-the-tip-of-an-iceberg/

--Richard Photo Lab. "Arthur Tress: 60 Years of Hauntingly Fascinating Photos." https://www.richardphotolab.com/blog/post/arthur-tress-60-years-hauntingly-fascinating-photos

Series VII. Pointers consists of 132 black and white prints, dating from 2000 to 2015, and features images of the architecture of Los Angeles. According to Jean Trinh, "from 2009 to 2013, Tress explored different parts of the city—from the L.A. River to Venice Beach and Arroyo Seco—and took photos of the architecture and people" (Trinh). James Rhem states that "faced with the challenge of photographing … stairways and facades in a fresh way, he turned the camera 45 degrees and stood his square image on its point. (Rhem).

--Rhem, James. "Arthur Tress: Finding Us in the Other," Focus Magazine, December 1, 2021 (https://www.focusphotomag.com/photographerfocus/arthur-tress-finding-us-in-the-other/)

--Trinh, Jean, "Neat Photos: Modern Los Angeles Through a Tilted Lens", July 8, 2014 (https://laist.com/news/entertainment/neat-photos-modern-los-angeles-thro)

Series VIII. Presidential Cabinet consists of four Cibachrome color prints "created in 1986 as a kind of social commentary upon the undemocratic excesses enacted during the term of … President Ronald Regan" (Eye of Photography). Tress has stated that they were inspired by Calaveras or "skull portraits" of Jose Guadalupe Posada (1852-1913).

--Eye of Photography: "Arthur Tress, Presidential Cabinet," https://loeildelaphotographie.com/en/arthur-tress-presidential-cabinet/

Series IX. Requiem for a paperweight consists of five Cibachrome color prints dating from 1991 to 1993. In an interview, Tress described this group of photographs: "It was a narrative series of color silhouettes projected against a piece of frosted glass. I finished that series, and then I got a faceted crystal ball and began projecting colored lights through it and adding collage elements." (Kasson)

--Kasson, Jim. "Arthur Tress," Center for Photographic Art. (https://photography.org/interview/arthur-tress-interview/)

Series X. San Francisco 1964, consists of 21 black and white prints, all taken during the spring and summer of 1964. According to the de Young Museum: "in the summer of 1964, San Francisco was ground zero for an historic clash as the site of the 28th Republican National Convention and the launch of the Beatles' first North American tour." Tress's photos focused on the people in the crowds and on the streets rather than the politicians or the musicians; and over the course of the project, one of his earliest documentary projects, he made more than nine hundred negatives. De Young Museum further states that, "exulting in juxtapositions of the mundane and the absurd, Tress captured the chaos of civil rights demonstrations and political rallies, the idiosyncratic movements of San Francisco's locals, the peculiar contents of shop windows, a miscellany of odd signs and much more." There are images of Rockefeller posters, crowds at Lyndon B. Johnson (abbreviated in titles as LBJ) speeches, and posters relating to Ringo Starr.

--DeYoung Museum, Exhibition notes: https://deyoung.famsf.org/deyoung/exhibitions/arthur-tress-san-francisco-1964#interview

Series XI. Shadow consists of three black and white prints, dating from 1974 to 1975. According to the Museum of Contemporary Photography, "in 1974, … Tress created a series of photographs that portray his shadow as the mythical protagonist of a visionary quest. The concept for the project in part grew out of Tress's engagement with the writings of anthropologists and historians dealing with myth and religion." American Libraries describes the photographs in his resulting published work Shadow: a novel in photographs: "Photographer Arthur Tress captures the beautiful ambiguity of the human spirit … follow[ing] a shadow man on a wordless Orphean journey from the imprisonment of his own emotions to the freedom of enlightenment. On the way he must confront his own fears."

--American Libraries, Vol. 6, No. 7 (July-August, 1975), pp. 434-435

--Museum of Contemporary Art. "About the Photographer: Arthur Tress." (https://www.mocp.org)

Series XII. Spray consists of one Chromogenic print, dating from 1980. Researchers looking for Marie Laveau will find the photograph of her memorial titled as: "The Tomb of Marie le Veau, New Orleans."

Series XIII. Still life consists of 130 black and white prints, two Cibachrome color prints, and one Chromogenic color print, dating from 1973 to 1983, with the bulk of the photographs being undated. This style of print, described as "staged surrealism," was what initially attracted attention to Tress as a photographer. According to Kasson, "in the early 1980s, he began to create arranged still lifes, first with one or two man-made objects in natural scenes, progressing to complex constructions that allegorically evoke emotional reactions. He created sculptures by arranging, modifying, and painting objects found in an abandoned hospital, and documented his creations with photographs. He made up fantastic stories, and told them in series of still-lifes."

--Kasson, Jim. "Arthur Tress," Center for Photographic Art. (https://photography.org/interview/arthur-tress-interview/)