| Anne Geddes | |
|---|---|
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| Photographer | |
| Born | Sep. 13, 1956 |
| Nationality | Australian |
Anne Geddes, born September 13, 1956, is a photographer from North Queensland, Australia. She is currently married to Kel Geddes and has two daughters, Kelly (born in 1986) and Stephanie (born in 1984). When she was a child, Anne was very interested in the stories of May Gibbs, a popular children’s author, and in particular, Mays’ gumnut babies, which featured many images that would later influence Anne’s work.
Geddes’ Photography Style
Geddes started to experiment with photography in the early 1980s and began to adapt her current direction around 1986. Her style has helped make her a world renowned photographer of babies and children, often portraying them as animals, fairytale creatures or flowers.
Anne taught herself photography through the creation of her own personal style which developed from a unique style to an art form. She took professional photos in Hong Kong while she was living there with her husband and started a small business of portraiture of babies and small children that belonged to her neighbors and acquaintances.
Beginning a Photography Career
After the couple returned to Australia, Anne began creating holiday photographic cards for her family and friends. This led to her launching a customized greeting card business. In 1988, Geddes started a studio upon relocating to Auckland, New Zealand. Her 1988 image of a girl in a tutu was published in a local magazine and received a great deal of attention. It was then that she decided to make a career out of the portraiture of children.
Anne’s style is based on depicting the personality and character of children through her photography in a more natural way. She once stated that she did not think it made sense to dress children in their Sunday best and pose them in unnatural situations.
Expansion of Artwork and Photography
Once Anne’s business in children’s portraiture started to blossom, she moved to explore different sources of inspiration. She created her own “cabbage kids” photos which became famous around the world. She decided to expand her business to create calendars, but could not find a suitable publisher which necessitated her selling her own calendars door to door from the back of her car.
She also sold some calendars in local camera stores which helped her raise more than $20,000.00, which she used in her personal non-profit charity, the Geddes Philanthropic Trust, which was started for the prevention of child abuse.
After this success, Anne and her husband sold their house and utilized their entire life savings to publish 20,000 copies of her calendar for sale in Australia. The calendars were wildly successful and sold out in a few short weeks. Anne then printed 20,000 more and sold those ones just as quickly.
Books by Anne Geddes
Hot on the heels of Anne’s calendar success story, she was contacted by a book publisher that was interested in having her design a book utilizing her images. She designed a book entitled Down in the Garden, which was published in 1996.
Following the publication of this book, Anne appeared on Oprah Winfrey, which helped guarantee the success of her book and launched her into a new career as a best-selling author internationally.
Today, the books of Anne Geddes are published in more than 83 countries worldwide and are available in 25 languages. Amazon reported that Anne Geddes has sold more than 13 million calendars and 19 million books. Cedco Publishing has sold more than two million calendars and datebooks which depict the photography of Anne Geddes since 1997, which helped launch her popularity around the world.