Arthur Tress' photographs from the 1960s and '70s (along with those of Duane Michals, Les Krims and Adal Maldonado), went against the grain of traditional documentary, helping to pave the way for photographers working in the 'directorial mode' in the decade that followed. Tress' early environmental portraits were, in part, an attempt to probe the psychological depths of his subject, and by implication, those of the viewer. These images often involved visual props, usually found in flea markets and the like. Eventually, Tress' focus shifted from his human subjects to the props themselves. Despite numerous exhibitions and the publication of several monographs, Tress, like many artist / photographers, needed to supplement his income, and did so through editorial work for magazines and book publishers. Of interest here are the covers he illustrated for Penguin's Crime Fiction imprint, under the art direction of Neil Stuart. These tabletop-scale set-ups are indicative of the shift from portrait to still life that resulted in Tress' own'Teapot Opera' series, published as a monograph by Abbeville Press in 1988. In the 1990's, Tress illustrated covers for Vintage Crime editions of Patricia Highsmith's classic 'Ripley' series. Apparently, the images he provided for these books were further altered by the publisher and/or designer. Like Man Ray and Edward Steichen before him, Tress managed, without sacrificing creative credibility, image quality or his distinctive style, to produce a group of images solely for illustrative, commercial purposes. In this case, one might be curious as to whether Tress' creative work influenced his commercial work, or vice versa. The answer, according to Tress, is a little of both. KB