Cutestest Babies Ever!

Anne Geddes Photography

Okay, so everyone has probably seen Anne Geddes photography before and quite possibly fell in love, much like myself. The babies are absolutely precious and make me just want to snuggle one up. I have always wondered how the photographs were taken and to be entirely honest had no idea that Anne even existed. I always just thought the pictures were called Anne Geddes, I never knew that she was the photographer. So with that I will give a little background on her, she was born on September 13, 1956 in Queensland, Australia. She has three sisters and was raised by her parents on their huge beef cattle property. In her biography it said that she and her sisters were true country kids. Her favorite magazine was Life because of the high value they places on the strength and quality of their photography. She remembers how she was always fascinated by images of people and the concept of a single still image and how it could capture a moment in time that would never be repeated. She started taking photographs when she was 17 to capture her day-to-day adventures working with a tourist hotel chain and worked various jobs throughout her young adulthood She got married in 1983. She quit her job and decided to open her own business taking pictures of neighbors and friends children at their homes, gardens and local parks. She advertised her business by posting something on her local community board. She moved back to australia in 1984 where she and her husband had their first daughter. Their second daughter was born in 1986, the same year Anne entered her first photogenic contest and came in second. Her first published work came out, in a local magazine, in 1988 which was first taken of a little girl named Gemma in her backyard studio.
After this photo became popular Anne decided to work specifically with children. In 1992 her husband left his highly successful career and became her business partner, that same year they began producing Anne Geddes cards. She used her cards and calendars to raise awareness of child abuse. Anne and her husband, Kel, sold the calendars from the back of their family car and raise more than US 20,000 to help prevent child abuse and neglect. After selling their house and investing their life savings into producing 20,000 copies of the calendar, turing those profits into producing 20,000 more copies Anne and Kel finally had an offer from a publishing company. In 1996 Anne created her Down in the Garden series and went on the Oprah show, which caused even more recognition world wide.
1998 was the year her first book, Until Now was published in eight different languages and she went on a world wide book tour. By the year 2000 more than 14 million Anne Geddes books had been sold worldwide! She created a baby clothing line in 2001 with the babies comfort in mind. Anne and Kel were very close to a young 8 year old girl who had cancer and who was a huge fan of Celine Dion. It just so happened that Celine Dion was a fan of Anne, so Anne asked if Celine would call the little girl at the hospital. After Anne called Celine to thank her for the call they realized they had some common interests and that Celine was pregnant. Anne wanted to photograph Celine's son, so the two worked together. They also created the music video for Celine's song Miracle with photographs Anne had taken. It was published in 22 countries and 11 different languages in 2004.
Anne and her husband continue to donate large amounts of money to charitable funds. Anne published an autobiography in 2007 titled, A Labor of Love. She also wrote Cherished Thoughts with Love(2005) and Be Gentle with the Young(2008). Early this year Anne was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Professional Photographers of America. Her two daughters now work beside her in her Sydney, Australia studio. She has sold more than 18 million copies of her books worldwide, translating into 24 languages and he images have been published in 83 countries.
The photo shoots are always very quick, usually lasting around two to three minutes. The studio plays soft soothing music and the temperature is set around 83 to keep the babies warm and cozy. Anne is said to be very professional, quick, and efficient.
I definitely consider Annes photographs art. They are not only aesthetically pleasing, especially to a baby lover like myself, but they are very thought out and clever. I would say that her photography is definitely emotionalist because her photos evoke a variety of emotions from people. They could also be seen as formalist though because of the techniques, lighting, alignment and subject.
Do you enjoy her photographs, why or why not? Would you consider them art? What quartet do you think they fit into?

Annegeddes.com
http://www.annegeddes.com/modules/Anne/Galleries/index.aspx