Anne Geddes

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Anne Geddes
MNZM
Born1956 (age 67–68)
Home Hill, Queensland, Australia
Occupation(s)Photographer, author, artist, businesswoman
Years active1981–present
Known forInfant photography
Website annegeddes.com

Anne Elizabeth Geddes MNZM (born 1956) is an Australian-born, New York City-based portrait photographer known primarily for her elaborately-staged photographs of infants. [1] [2]

Contents

Geddes's books have been published in 83 countries. [3] According to Amazon.com, she has sold more than 18 million books and 13 million calendars. [4] In 1997, Cedco Publishing sold more than 1.8 million calendars and date books bearing Geddes' photography. [5] Her 1996 debut book Down in the Garden, was featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show [6] and made it to the New York Times bestseller list. [7] Her books have been translated into 23 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 Geddes, [8] 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 which proved popular. [3]

Career

Geddes became a professional 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. [3] [9]

Geddes also shoots for philanthropic causes. Geddes created her own philanthropic program, the Geddes Philanthropic Trust, whose primary focus was to raise awareness of child abuse and neglect. 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. [3] [10] She has also worked with March of Dimes. [6]

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. [11]

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. [12] [13] "You have to be really fast", Geddes says about getting good shots. She sets up her studio in advance – props, lighting, cameras, and equipment [14] — 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. [12] She keeps the babies' parents nearby for extra assistance with expressions. [13]

Works

Honours and awards

In the 2004 Queen's Birthday Honours, Geddes was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to photography and the community. [15]

In 2017 Geddes was inducted into the International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum. [16]

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.[ citation needed ]

McSweeney's Internet Tendency, the humour site of McSweeney's, published a Short Imagined Monologue called "An Anne Geddes Baby Grows Up". [17]

Humor website The Onion spoofed Geddes's style with "Anne Geddes Starting to Lose It". [18]

In the eighth episode of the sixth season of Friends , 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 recognise dressed as a water lily. After being told that Anne Geddes is a famous artist, he assumes that the baby is Anne Geddes.[ citation needed ]

On the comedy website called Funny or Die, there was a humorous skit on the adulthood of the babies from her photos. [19]

On the 26 June 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.[ citation needed ]

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

In an episode of The Office Angela Martin and Andrew Bernard use Jan Levinson's baby (Astrid) in a 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, and 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. Geddes's name is never mentioned directly, but her style of photography was heavily implied.[ citation needed ]

In Schitt's Creek , season six episode seven mentions character Moira Rose's collaboration with Anne Geddes on a print advertisement for heartburn.[ citation needed ]

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References

  1. ↑ Lyall, Sarah (22 March 2021). "Anne Geddes Was the Original Baby-Picture Influencer". The New York Times . ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 8 May 2022.
  2. ↑ Gander, Kashmira (13 March 2017). "The world's most famous baby photographer on how to take the perfect photo of your child". The Independent. Retrieved 8 May 2022.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Bio". Anne Geddes. Archived from the original on 16 February 2014. Retrieved 13 February 2014.
  4. ↑ "Anne Geddes Bibliography". Amazon.com.
  5. ↑ Freierman, Shelly (29 December 1997). "Calendar Whirl: Thousands of Ways to Keep Track of 365 Days". The New York Times. Retrieved 2 March 2011.
  6. 1 2 Brara, Noor (30 April 2020). "Anne Geddes Was Once the Queen of Baby Photography. Now, She's Hit Hard Times—and Is Asking for Your Help". News.artnet.com. Retrieved 15 April 2021.
  7. ↑ "Best Sellers: December 1, 1996". The New York Times. 1 December 1996. Retrieved 2 March 2011.
  8. ↑ "About Anne". Anne Geddes. Archived from the original on 6 September 2019. Retrieved 6 March 2020.
  9. ↑ Eby, Douglas (29 December 2007). "Artistic confidence: Anne Geddes on believing in herself despite her childhood". Women and Talent. Archived from the original on 12 May 2014. Retrieved 12 May 2014.
  10. ↑ Barton, Adriana (24 April 2014). "Anne Geddes turns her lens to a new subject: survivors of meningitis". The Globe and Mail . Retrieved 12 May 2014.
  11. ↑ "Inside Anne Geddes' world of baby photography". CBS News. 8 May 2014. Retrieved 21 March 2021.
  12. 1 2 Steinberg, Lynn (17 November 1996). "Babies reborn in unlikely photos". The Post and Courier. Retrieved 2 March 2011.
  13. 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.
  14. ↑ "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.
  15. ↑ "Queen's Birthday honours list 2004". Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. 7 June 2004. Retrieved 30 May 2020.
  16. ↑ "Anne Geddes". International Photography Hall of Fame. Retrieved 24 July 2022.
  17. ↑ Labacz, Liz. "An Anne Geddes Baby Grows Up". McSweeney's Internet Tendency. Retrieved 6 September 2014.
  18. ↑ "Anne Geddes Starting to Lose it". The Onion. 25 July 2001. Retrieved 6 September 2014.
  19. ↑ Where Are They Now? Top Baby Models. Fancy. 12 May 2013. Archived from the original on 21 December 2021. Retrieved 5 March 2018– via YouTube.
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