The Nightmarish Art of Joshua Hoffine

Joshua Hoffine is an artist that recreates common children's nightmares in his disturbing retouched photographs.  Subjects include monsters living under the bed, a swarm of cockroaches coming out of a mother's mouth and disembodied arms creeping up on an unsuspecting little girl holding a teddy bear.  Hoffine often creates a set and even costumes for his nightmarish photographs.  He has sometimes cast his own daughter as a model for these photos. 

He lives and works in Kansas City, Missouri.  I'm now wondering what kind of a place Kansas City must be.  He is gaining a strong following of fans who love horror. He was recently featured in the New York Daily Times website in a slideshow of 12 images of childhood nightmares.  The one pictured here is titled simply "Bed."

I find his work very disturbing since he has able to recreate at least one childhood fear or nightmare that I still have as an adult.  I also find it a little disturbing that some of the children in the photographs wear only underpants.  I suppose this is to highlight how vulnerable we are to our fears.  I think I'll stick with written horror authors like Stephen King.  One comforting aspect to Hoffine's work is that when you see these images, you know that you aren't the only one who suffered from these nightmares.

BBC Documentary: "10 Things You Need to Know About Sleep"

EDIT: The video has been taken down by YouTube since this post first went online. I'm still keeping this post in the blog just in case someone manages to sneak it back onto YouTube again. Sorry!

Having trouble getting a good night's sleep?  You're not alone.  In the UK alone, there are millions of insomniacs.  This BBC documentary, presented by BBC news presenter Kate Silverton.  The documentary is just under 35 minutes long.  This is not the entire documentary, unfortunately.  Things it covers includes:

• How taking a bath about an hour before bedtime can help trick your body into getting sleep
• How one family member's insomnia can affect the whole family
• How spending less time in bed (sleep restriction) may help insomniacs get more sleep
• Why the afternoon is the best time for a 20 - 30 minute nap
• How what we drink before we sleep can impact the quality of our sleep

I just wish I could afford one of the blue lights talked about in the documentary.