Parasomnia

by Moses Isegawa, Moses Isegawa

Saturated with color and boldly composed, Viviane Sassen's photographs straddle the boundaries of fashion, art, and documentary photography. This monograph by the award-winning Dutch-born photographer Viviane Sassen features photographs from throughout West and East Africa. Sassen's overriding theme is parasomnia, a sleep disorder involving strange movements, behaviors, emotions, and dreams. The otherworldly feel of these photographs, involving both human and inanimate subjects, aptly conveys an altered-consciousness point of view-one that is at home in the pages of a fashion magazine, newspaper, or a modern art gallery. Indeed, Sassen's images have appeared in all three venues to wide acclaim. Sassen's photographic series is engaging and thrillingly beautiful, filled with shadow and ambiguity, and it offers a challenge to the viewers to come up with their own narrative.

104 pages, Hardcover

First published November 29, 2011

About the author

Moses Isegawa, also known as Sey Wava (born 10 August 1963), is a Ugandan author. He has written novels set against the political turmoil of Uganda, which he left in 1990 for the Netherlands. His debut novel, Abyssinian Chronicles, was first published in Amsterdam in 1998, selling more than 100,000 copies and gaining him widespread national attention. It was also very well reviewed when published in English in the United Kingdom and United States, in 2001. Isegawa became a naturalized Dutch citizen, but he returned to live in Uganda in 2006.

Reviews

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved Flamboya, so had high hopes for this book. There are some good pictures, but the style seems much more affected, and the psychology of the pictures seems a little stilted. I love the books designed by SYB, the design doesn't seem as synchronous with the pictures; the design isn't nearly as revelatory, unique, or insightful as Flamboya. The page design is like the Cuny Janssen book There is Something in the Air in Prince Albert, though doesn't construct the same flow, and thus doesn't seem to work.