‘‘At night I dream of the most amazing photographs you could ever imagine,’’ she says. ‘‘Then I wake up and try to remember exactly how it was.’’

The 29-year-old from Collingwood can’t pinpoint exactly when she became a photographer, but says the desire to capture what she sees – and imagines – has been with her forever. She puts it down to an unbridled imagination that sees something and just runs with it.

Only after seeing Tremp’s work can you appreciate how convincingly she weaves that dreamy imagination into photography. Her work is full of birds, beasts, black forests and decay. Most include herself too, rather than models so the dream in her head doesn’t need to be explained in words. It is these emotive, often eerie, images that have brought her attention in Melbourne’s photographic scene.

One step in gaining that exposure was the Centre for Contemporary Photography’s Kodak Salon, which she has entered three years running. The competition, open to amateurs and professionals, provides photographers with the opportunity to have their work seen and sold.

But photography is not so much a job as an outlook for Tremp, who describes it as a way to wash the dust off the daily grind of living. ‘‘It’s also a way of gathering feelings and emotions into some sort of package and sending it on its way,’’ she says. ‘‘Then you can let go of something and you are ready to move on with the next thing.’’

Tremp doubts the teaching degree she never finished would have led her to such satisfaction. She laughs now at how her dad didn’t speak to her for a week after she dropped out to study dance instead.

Since then she’s tried her hand at writing, painting and just about anything else creative: indulging creative whims is important, she says. ‘‘People shouldn’t feel they have to pick something to the exclusion of others – just give everything a go and see what’s best.’’

Growing up in Switzerland, Tremp says the pressures to conform and build a successful career were suffocating. She followed a man to Australia – which didn’t work out, but Melbourne did and she slowly fell in love with a city where there was a bit more room to dream.