Alexis, 1981. Many of Spagna’s subjects, especially in the early years,
were friends and family. Alexis was the three-month old daughter of one of
Spagna’s school friends. (Courtesy of George Eastman House/ © The Estate of
Ted Spagna)
We spend a third of our lives in sleep, but why we do so remains a mystery.
William Dement, a pioneer in the field of sleep and sleep disorders, gave
this mordant summary of his 50 years of research: “The only reason we need
to sleep that is really, really solid, is that we get sleepy.†When Spagna
showed his work to a Harvard neurophysiologist, Dr Allan Hobson (whose sleep
study is pictured here as Mr Mrs Dream Doctor), Hobson was
thrilled. Spagna’s photographs, taken in people’s homes, allowed scientists
to observe the 90-minute sleep-dream cycle. They exist at the same
intersection of art and science as Eadweard ÂMuybridge. But where
Muybridge’s studies of animals in motion take quicksilver moments and
explode them into dozens of individual shots, Spagna presents his subjects’
nocturnal tumult in compression.
Mr Mrs Dream Doctor, 1977. Dr Allan Hobson, professsor of
psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, and one of Spagna’s main
collaborators, and his wife. (Courtesy of George Eastman House/ © The Estate
of Ted Spagna)
Spagna’s equipment was simple, with a camera hung over his subjects on
spring-loaded poles. (Bonfilio remembers a more Heath Robinson-ish
contrivance, with Spagna using jugs filled with water to cantilever his
boom.) In time, he had moved his camera from the end of the bed to directly
above it. As a trained architect, he knew this as “plan viewâ€; as a student
of human behaviour, he came to call it “God’s-eye viewâ€.
Peter and Cat (detail), 1979. The sequence showing Peter and his cat
became one of Spagna’s best known studies after being published on the cover
of the New York Times Magazine. (Courtesy of George Eastman House/ © The
Estate of Ted Spagna)
‘Sleep’,
by Ted Spagna (Universe Publishing), is available for £31.50 plus £1.35 pp.
To order call 0844 871 1514 or visit books.telegraph.co.uk
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on Twitter @telephotography
Ted Spagna"s sleep photographs
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