When Words Fail

NICOLAS BRUNO’S PHOTOGRAPHS TELL THE STORY OF HIS WAKING NIGHTMARES

- Barry Tanenbaum

This is one of the first images Bruno made to depict the figures he sees in his dreams. “At the beginning I thought I was possessed by demons, haunting me, or my room, or my house. I saw the figures walking through my room as demonic entities, and I wanted a photo with the look of a Renaissance painting where people look monolithic and intimidating. The figure has so such power.”

NICOLAS BRUNO WAS 15 YEARS OLD WHEN everything changed. His restful sleep became something very different, something called sleep paralysis. Conscious, his eyes open, he was unable to move, unable to stop the terrifying dreams and hallucinations in which he was pursued and tormented.

Unable to explain in words what he was seeing and feeling, he began to keep a dream journal of notes and sketches, and later created photographs that told the story of his sleep paralysis experience. Photographs were a kind of therapy, and an essential way to communicate. Nine years later, they still are.

The photos are sometimes literal representations of the nightmares; some are creative visualizations of the terror he’s felt. In the images he portrays both the aggressor and the victim, referring to both as “characters.” Often a place or an object will trigger a memory, and he’ll find a sketch in the dream journal that will make the associative connection.

Turning those sketches into photographs enabled him to not only communicate, but to gain some mastery over what was happening to him. He can’t stop or direct the dreams, but behind the camera he is in control.