Sleep

An intimate, voyeuristic exploration into the private landscape of the unconscious from the Muybridge of sleep. In 1975, Ted Spagna began his voyeuristic venture into "inner space," exposing the secrets of human sleep behavior by photographing intimate narratives of sleeping figures with a time-lapse camera. Taken at fixed intervals throughout the night from a bird's-eye view, and displayed in chronological order, the series of images reads like a silent film. From the erotic to the domestic, men and women alone, tender intertwined couples, and children are all psychologically and often literally naked as they dance within their sheets. Presented in brilliantly colored exposures, these sensual, cinematic images of dressed or undressed sleeping subjects depict the inherent beauty, rhythm, and organization of natural behavior. Echoing the work of Eadweard Muybridge, this unprecedented book is sure to delight art and photography lovers.

Ted Spagna (1943–1989) was an influential teacher, filmmaker, and photographer. In 1975, Spagna began to pioneer sleep photography and produce the body of work for which he is most known. Mary Ellen Mark is an award-winning American photographer. She has received numerous accolades, including three Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards and three fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts. Dr. Allan Hobson, M.D. is an American psychiatrist and dream researcher.