Sleeping Beauties: Newborns in Dreamland | Book Review

Authors: Tracy Raver and Kelley Ryden
Item Reviewed: Sleeping Beauties: Newborns in Dreamland

Tracy Raver and Kelley Ryden’s photographs of babies at rest, nestled in soft surroundings, are pure magic. After airing on the Today Show in September 2009, Raver’s portraits of sleeping babies caused a national sensation – people cannot get enough of these slumbering babes! In Sleeping Beauties: Newborns in Dreamland, Raver’s lens has captured newborns as they inhabit that magical place – a world where past and future dreams come together in an ethereal realm. In most instances, the babies portrayed are brand new, on their way home for the very first time. It is in this state of newness, of transition from their warm cocoon of the past nine months to their journey of a new life, that she captures them as they slumber, dream, and awaken to their new surroundings.

Sisters Tracy Raver and Kelley Ryden are professional photographers who have helped to launch a new genre of studio photography: newborn baby portraiture. Forgoing elaborate props or artificial contrivances, their minimalist approach allows the emphasis to be on the newborns, resulting in a Zen-like simplicity that offers a glimpse of the grace and innocence that we all possess when we first enter the world.

My Thoughts

If ever there was a book that can just melt your heart it is this one! Baby after baby in the most beautiful settings, while off in dreamland, to me there isn’t anything better! The images are stunning, the babies adorable and I have to say that these two sisters have a great eye for simple beauty! I love babies, and this book would make an excellent gift for a soon-to-be mom, an experienced mom or a grandmother! I HIGHLY recommend everyone take a peek inside Sleeping Beauties: Newborns in Dreamland, you will fall in love!