FRANCE SCULLY OSTERMAN

These photos of people sleeping in luxuriously disheveled sheets are so intimate and sexy you might feel like a Peeping Tom at the bedroom window. But Osterman also captures a hushed stillness and utter release that suggest a more final rest, and some of her most striking images could be deathbed portraits. The photographer's use of the 19th-century wet-collodion process - which results in chocolate-toned prints on waxed salt paper - adds another layer of rich sensuality to the pictures and gives her subjects an almost antique aura. But there's nothing musty about Osterman's sleepers; they're so vividly present, you can almost hear their shallow breathing in the room. (Aletti)