Who is Anne Geddes, the child photographer liked by JW Anderson

There is a strong connection between the world of art and the creations of Jonathan W. Anderson. You can see it by looking at his garments' silhouette, cut, prints, or decorations. For example, at the LOEWE Women's FW24 show, handbags were shaped like bunches of asparagus, a tribute to French provincial ceramics, some of the coats had collars made of real wood shavings reminiscent of Chippendale-style furniture, floral motifs evoked the interiors of Onassis' homes, and the idyllic natural landscapes of Albert York came to life in bustiers sculpted like petals, trousers printed with radishes, and dogs lying on grass. It’s a complex, pastoral, and surreal world that draws from Anderson's eclectic imagination, which includes not only the work of American painter Albert York, but also, as revealed by the creative director on the brand's Instagram, that of Anne Geddes. For those born after 2000, she might be an unknown name, but there was a time when her photographs were everywhere. Her images of babies sitting in flowerpots, lying on tulips, dressed as pea pods, and covered in cabbage leaves flooded greeting cards, diaries, notebooks, puzzles, postcards, calendars, and posters. So widespread that the initial cuteness of a chubby baby dressed as a bee became overly sweet, kitsch, and cheap. Yet, today, Geddes' work has nearly vanished from memory. Could Anderson's interest bring the photographer and her aesthetic back to the popularity they once had?

Anne Geddes, the beginnings

Anne Geddes was born in September 1956 in Queensland, Australia, and grew up on her family's farm. At 17 she left school and, with the equivalent of a high school diploma in hand, moved out. Shortly after, she met her husband, television anchorman Kel Geddes, and followed him to Hong Kong. There, at the age of 25, equipped with an old Pentax K1000 35mm camera, she began her career as a photographer. "I always joked that when I first picked up a camera at 25, I was the first photographer I'd ever met" she says. As a teenager, she gazed at LIFE magazine and stared at the images of people until she fell in love with photojournalism. After experimenting with landscapes, she began focusing on people, photographing families in their backyards. Upon returning to Australia, she moved to the subject that would define her career: babies. On New Year's Eve 1984, Anne announced to a friend, "I will become the most famous baby photographer in the world". Ten years later it came true.

Anne Geddes, the most famous baby photographer in the world

In the early 1990s, Anne won some photography competitions and began turning her images into postcards and calendars that gained popularity in New Zealand, where she had settled with her husband and two daughters. Her big break? It came with Down in the Garden, a book in which Geddes compiled photos of babies dressed as bumblebees, fairies, water lilies, peas, butterflies, teddy bears, and flowers. Oprah Winfrey featured it in her book club, and Anne’s work made it to the New York Times bestseller list. Suddenly those tender, fairy-tale-like images were everywhere. Fully integrated into 1990s pop culture, they adorned the walls of every nursery and even appeared on Friends, became desktop backgrounds, graced the covers of diaries, notebooks, were bought for birthday wishes, and printed on pillows. The Australian photographer continued her work, exploring childhood, family, and the bond between mother and child, as seen in her collaboration with Céline Dion for the concept album Miracle.

The art of photographing "The Miracle of New Life"

Despite her popularity, Anne Geddes' work was often dismissed by critics and (as she herself recounts) by male colleagues for being considered trivial and irrelevant. These judgments overlooked the obsessive attention and meticulous care put into each shot, not to mention the cultural impact that those little models dressed as gnomes, sunflowers, and ladybugs had in redefining how society views and celebrates early childhood. Geddes made baby photography an art form. Her aesthetic, blending babies with nature and showcasing their innocence and vulnerability, has influenced the way children are represented in art and photography even today. "I love small children because they always have this sense of promise. They are like an open book. They are us at the beginning of our lives" said the photographer about her work. "They are simply pure. There's no malice, there's innocence, there are little babies, and it's just what we instill in them as they grow that makes them become different people. My work is about the promise and the miracle of new life". What interests her is the potential of a newborn before being influenced by its environment, for better or worse, and her message is that we are all responsible for preserving their purity. This is why Geddes has dedicated much of her career to raising awareness about the neglect and abuse many children around the world endure.

Anne Geddes, from global success to forgetfulness

Each of Geddes' images requires meticulous work and obsessive attention to detail. The costumes, sets, and every element that helps recreate that simple, fairy-tale, idyllic world come at a cost. Producing that kind of photo shoot takes between $250,000 and $350,000 and about six months of full-time work. These costs became unsustainable and as the Internet spread, Geddes' empire, along with her popularity, began to crumble. People were no longer willing to open their wallets for photos of unknown babies, no matter how cute they were. If they wanted to, they could use Photoshop and their smartphones to create all the pictures they wanted for free. As a result calendars, greeting cards, postcards, and books sold less and less, and Geddes' strategy of using royalties from previous works to pay for future projects became an unsustainable business model. This is why starting in 2016, the Australian photographer stopped producing them, focusing instead on commissions for companies and private clients, as well as campaigns for charitable organizations. Over time, the world that once seemed to adore her has forgotten her and her flower-babies, left to gather dust in some storage room. Will JW Anderson's interest in her work and Gen Z's obsession with the 1990s and all things cute bring Anne Geddes out of forgetfulness?