Anne Geddes

Anne Geddes
Born (1956-09-13) 13 September 1956
Queensland, Australia
Occupation Photographer, artist, businesswoman
Years active 1981–present
Known for Infant photography
Title MNZM
Website www.annegeddes.com

Anne Geddes, MNZM (born 13 September 1956) is an Australian-born photographer, currently living and working in New York.

Geddes' books have been published in 83 countries.[1] According to Amazon.com, she has sold more than 18 million books and 13 million calendars.[2] In 1997, Cedco Publishing sold more than 1.8 million calendars and date books bearing Geddes' photography.[3] Her debut book, Down in the Garden, made it to the New York Times Bestseller List.[4] Her books have been translated into 23 different languages.

Early life

In her 2007 autobiography Labor of Love, Geddes talked about her difficult early years at their family cattle farm in Queensland, Australia. She dropped out of school at 17 and left home. Later, she met and married Kel, and moved to Hong Kong in 1983 for his work in television. There, at age 25, she taught herself photography using her husband's 35mm Pentax K1000 camera. By the time the couple returned to Sydney two years later, she had built a small portfolio. She started specializing in baby photography after using photographs of her two daughters for a family Christmas card proved popular.[1]

Career

Geddes became a photographer at age 30 after she moved to Melbourne due to her husband's work. She assisted a local photographer before starting her own studio from her garage.[1][5]

She had always had an interest in photography in general, but the schools she attended did not offer photography classes. She chose babies as her subject because of her love of them. "I had seen the way children and babies were generally being photographed. It just didn't seem realistic to me that people took their children along to photographic studios all dressed in their Sunday best, photographs that didn't really show the personality of the child."

During the progression of her career, Geddes created her own philanthropic program named "Geddes Philanthropic Trust". Its primary focus was to raise awareness of child abuse and neglect. Her philanthropic program raised many opportunities for not only her community, but also for her business. Her philanthropic work has been very successful. In 2013, she created a series for the survivors of Meningococcal Disease. The photographs depict families and children that have been affected by the disease and honours those who have survived. She shot photographs of 15 child survivors of meningitis for the Protecting Our Tomorrows: Portraits of Meningococcal Disease campaign.[1][6]

Geddes believes that "emotional content is an image's most important element" and that people are drawn to her work because of its simplicity and personality. She prefers black-and-white to colour photography as she feels that colour distracts from the image and the natural beauty of life.[7]

Process

Geddes does not audition babies for use as models because she believes all babies are beautiful. Instead, she keeps in touch with multiple birth and twin clubs and has thousands of photographs on file that parents have sent her. Geddes currently resides in New York with her husband Kel.[8]

A typical sitting takes place in the morning when the babies are well-rested, and lasts about half an hour; otherwise, the babies could get too bored or fussy.[9][10] "You have to be really fast," Geddes says about getting good shots. She sets up her studio in advance — props, lighting, cameras, and equipment[11] — so that all the baby or babies have to do is sit. Many of her props are custom made, such as oversized shoes and flowerpots.[9] She keeps the babies' parents nearby for extra assistance with expressions.[10]

Works

  • Down in the Garden (1996), ISBN 0-7407-3540-3
  • Children's collection, Anne Geddes(1996), Cedeo Publishing Company, USA
    • Garden Friends, ISBN 1-55912-342-7,1996
    • Garden Families
    • Garden Colors
    • Color
    • Faces
    • Dress ups
  • Geddes, Anne (1997). Anne Geddes Birthdays and Anniversaries: Orchid Babies. Cedco Pub. ISBN 978-1-55912-347-1.
  • The Twelve Days of Christmas (1997)
  • Until Now (1998), ISBN 0-7407-3541-1
  • Geddes, Anne (2000). 10 in the Bed. Andrews McMeel Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7407-1255-5.
  • Pure (2002), ISBN 0-7407-2641-2
  • Geddes, Anne (2003). Until Now. Andrews McMeel Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7407-3541-7.
  • Miracle: A Celebration of New , with Celine Dion, (2004) ISBN 0-7407-4696-0
  • Geddes, Anne (2005). Shapes. Andrews McMeel Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7407-5585-9.
  • Geddes, Anne (2005). Colors. Andrews McMeel Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7407-5583-5.
  • Geddes, Anne (2007). A Labor of Love: An Autobiography. Andrews McMeel Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7407-6562-9.
  • Geddes, Anne (2008). Be Gentle with the Young. Andrews McMeel Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7407-7771-4.
  • Beginnings (2010)
  • Anne Geddes Little Blessings (2014). ISBN 1402298188.

In a skit on The Ronnie Johns Half Hour, Geddes (played by Felicity Ward) helps a Chinese family hide their additional children from one-child policy inspectors, by camouflaging them in conspicuous places, which the inspectors are unable to notice.

McSweeney's Internet Tendency, the humour site of McSweeney's, published a Short Imagined Monologue called "An Anne Geddes Baby Grows Up".[12]

Humor website The Onion spoofed Geddes' style with "Anne Geddes Starting to Lose It".[13]

In an episode of Friends, specifically, the eighth episode of the sixth season entitled "The One with Ross's Teeth", Joey Tribbiani complains to his roommate Janine about a Geddes photograph she hung on the living room wall. The photograph depicted a baby Joey didn't dressed as a water lily. After being told that Anne Geddes is a famous artist, he assumes that the baby is Anne Geddes.

On the comedy website called Funny or Die, there was a humorous skit on the adulthood of the babies from her photos.[14]

On the June 26, 2017 episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Colbert shows a drawing of Sean Spicer and jokingly showed how Spicer would look as depicted by famous artists, including Geddes.

In the American Dad! episode "The Census of the Lambs", Klaus copies Geddes' photographs in his own photoshoot and gets attacked by an angry version of Geddes.

In an episode of The Office Angela Martin and Andrew Bernard use Jan Levinson's baby (Astrid) in an Anne Geddes style photo shoot, while the two of them are visiting Dunder Mifflin for Jan's debauched baby shower. Jan finds them in the break room, she is enraged that they are photographing a baby using a flash and, that Astrid is on a table surrounded by vegetables and dressed in cabbage leaves. Anne Geddes name is never mentioned directly, but her style of photography was heavily implied.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Geddes, Anne. "Bio". Anne Geddes. Archived from the original on 16 February 2014. Retrieved 13 February 2014.
  2. ↑ "Anne Geddes Bibliography". Amazon.com.
  3. ↑ Freierman, Shelly (29 December 1997). "Calendar Whirl ; Thousands of Ways to Keep Track of 365 Days". New York Times. Retrieved 2 March 2011.
  4. ↑ "BEST SELLERS: December 1, 1996". The New York Times. 1 December 1996. Retrieved 2 March 2011.
  5. ↑ Douglas Eby (2007-12-29). "Artistic confidence: Anne Geddes on believing in herself despite her childhood". Women and Talent. Retrieved 2014-05-12.
  6. ↑ Adriana Barton (24 April 2014). "Anne Geddes turns her lens to a new subject: survivors of meningitis". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 2014-05-12.
  7. ↑ Prezi user: tatum riley (14 November 2012). "Anne Geddes". Prezi. Retrieved 5 March 2018.
  8. ↑ http://www.cbsnews.com/news/anne-geddes-in-a-very-lucky-situation-with-baby-photography-fame/
  9. 1 2 Steinberg, Lynn (17 November 1996). "Babies reborn in unlikely photos". The Post and Courier. Retrieved 2 March 2011.
  10. 1 2 Bashinsky, Ruth (14 October 1999). "Baby-Sitter Anne Geddes' Photos of Infants Are The Shots Seen 'Round The World". New York Daily News. Retrieved 2 March 2011.
  11. ↑ "Sleeping Beauties A Closeup With New Zealand Photographer Anne Geddes, Who Talks About Her Wildly Popular Cherubic Images". New York Daily News. 5 November 1998. Retrieved 2 March 2011.
  12. ↑ Labacz, Liz. "An Anne Geddes Baby Grows Up". McSweeney's Internet Tendency. Retrieved 6 September 2014.
  13. ↑ "Anne Geddes Starting to Lose it". The Onion. 25 July 2001. Retrieved 6 September 2014.
  14. ↑ YouTube user: Fancy (May 12, 2013). "Where Are They Now? Top Baby Models". YouTube. Retrieved 5 March 2018.
  • "World's Most Famous Baby Photographer on the Power of Motherhood". TIME.
  • "Inside Anne Geddes' world of baby photography". CBS NEWS. 8 May 2014.
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