Anne Geddes:
I've always admired the work of the well-known Australian photographer Anne Geddes. Most people seem to associate her with taking newborn photography to the extreme with outrageous costuming and props, photographing babies and young children dressed as flowers, vegetables, and fairies. This most likely comes from the theme of her debut coffee table book, Down in the Garden. Not as many people are familiar with her other, more understated and simplistic works, namely her following books Pure and Beginnings. Beginnings is probably my favorite book of images. Like Down in the Garden, Beginnings celebrates the relationship between nature and the new life of a human baby. Unlike the bright, whimsical feel Geddes established in Down in the Garden, in which the nature-baby relationship is represented through capturing the image of a baby laying on a pumpkin, or dressed as a sunflower, Beginnings takes another approach. Through comparing the swell of a pregnant stomach to that of a bud, about to bloom, or placing a cracked shell over a newborn baby, the photographs vulnerably represent the anticipation, and bursting forth of new life, as seen in nature and in our human life cycles. I love looking at her images because they inspire me in their visual representation of universally significant themes. They are simple yet they speak to so much. I aspire to create images that can do the same thing. As a photographer I most admire Anne Geddes for her complete commitment to her art. She isn't a photographer in the sense of serving others in the traditional way, I.E. through photographing their weddings, families, or even newborns. At this point in her career she brings visions in reality, setting up meaningful portraits to offer the world. Isn't that what artist do?
Below are two images, the first from her book Down in the Garden, the book which introduced me to her photography and delighted me as a young girl, and the second from Beginnings.
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