Anne Geddes Shares "a Labor of Love."

Close your eyes and imagine this: strawberry pink sugar plum fairies waving their magical wands as they sprinkle their fairy dust of love like pretty petite tinkerbell. Picture an exotic cat-eyed delicate butterfly in human form with hand-painted sunlight yellow wings. Imagine a dozen of round-faced purple baby water-lillies besieged in water and autumn leaves. Please become immersed in the beauty of identical chocolate angels asleep on ivory clouds of heaven. This is not a Walt Disney fairytale; this is the enchanting world of the remarkable Anne Geddes!

After twenty-five years of giving us exemplary sensational photography, Geddes has finally released her autobiography: A Labor of Love. Just in time for the holidays with what would make for a perfect gift culminating all the different elements of love and friendship, Geddes' book is a collection of stories and photographs from her illustrious career.

A Labor of Love is a verbal completion of Geddes' immaculate conception of images, finally including the biographical captions of her adorable characters. This book is a revelation of stories beyond the photographs that have become fixtures in many of our homes, albums and art collections. Geddes shares her commitment and need to highlight and give attention to the little important people we call les enfants in this visual masterpiece. Geddes introduces the readers to her work by explaining that, A Labor of Love is not just about herself but "the true stars" of her art- the babies. "Over the years I have come to realize that newborn babies are very powerful little people. The Chilean poet Pablo Neruda once said,'They can cut all the flowers, but they can't stop the spring,' and this is what newborn babies represent to me...our eternal chance at new beginnings."

In her prologue, Geddes stated the following: "I'm so fortunate to have had the opportunity to follow my own dreams and passions, and my true hope is that, through the process, I have created a body of images that will have a profound positive effect far into the future... It's been interesting for me to see how my work's evolved and to take myself on that journey." Geddes further explained the aspirations of her book.

"The aim of A Labor of Love is to give the reader an insight into my work, my photographic images, and also to have them feel as if they know more about the person behind those images. Photographing babies exclusively has been extremely rewarding and in many ways challenging. At this stage in my life and career, I feel the need to share the motivation for my life's work. I suppose we all have preconceived notions about people who find themselves in the public eye. Often when I meet people, they say, 'I didn't think you would look like you do, or "I imagined someone totally different. I have wondered what they really expected. Babies for me are an incredible emotive subject matter and my work is intensely personal, but I feel that it expresses passionate and deeply held universal human values. Probably as a result of this, people come to my images from their own sense of judgment and perspective."

Born and raised in Queensland Australia, Anne Geddes did not begin her art of photography until she was twenty-five years old. She is self-taught and says despite her success she has moments of self-doubt like other artists. Geddes confessed that the love for her subjects of babies and flowers was met with great skepticism. In an interview with book critic, John Marshall of Seattle P.I, Geddes revealed that a London editor rejected her portfolio saying, "If I can give you some advice, just photographing babies is never going to work for you. You need to broaden your portfolio to include adults and animals."

The acute belief within herself and the love for her craft gave her perseverance to stick with her own motif. Although her work has been criticized and misunderstood at times, Geddes subscribes to the artistic law of creativity that is the foundation of being an artist: "Our art is not for everybody" making it that much more exclusive, stimulating and intimate. Art is like the relationship of love and care; it does not require the participation or agreement of everyone in order to be worthwhile. This is what makes art and creative expression so wonderful. It is not a science or math that can be explained by equation or reason. Art is a colorful display of form embodying concepts of originality. It is the exciting mindscape of an individual's feelings conceptualized through images. The intention is never to emulate or assimilate but to give a depiction of our own thoughts. Because we are all different, our interpretation can never be identical. Psychologists state that, "how a person interprets art is a self-reflection of themselves, their brain capacity and state of mind." This is why Psychologists often test people's state of mind by their interpretation of obscure drawings of art, usually perceived and interpreted differently because our perception is a mere reflection of who we are. The variation of interpretation is what makes art attractive and multi-dimensional.

Anne Geddes' art photography is meant to re-energize our spirit and evoke an extreme sensitivity inside our hearts projected in our interaction and communication with children. Geddes' deep connection to newborns comes from a desire to illuminate the film of an inner sense of purity, hope and innocence often deleted by prints of pessimism, developement, and obscurity. Geddes' discipline to focus on the people who loved her art and not the ones much too ignorant to correctly understand it paid off. Her art has produced sales of eighteen million books worldwide, which have been translated in twenty-three different languages. She is also a baby clothes designer and her photographs have been utilized in many different forms and mediums. Anne Geddes photography has become a global brand that is adored by millions of people who embrace her message and anticipate the addition to her phenomenal collections.

Geddes was recently selected as an artist to be included in Google's Artist Program, which allows her art to be viewed by billions of searchers on the web. Also the company whose motto is "just believe" has embraced Geddes' spirit of youth -reflected in her ageless beauty and incorporated in her art. She has been blessed with a flagship store in Downtown Walt Disney. The diligent photographer shares that she is proud to be a part of the Disney family in Anaheim California. On her blog, Geddes wrote that, "It is always lovely to see the happy expressions on everyone's faces when they are in the store, or on their way to Disneyland and California Adventure."

What also makes Geddes' photography stand out is her variation of backdrops and willingness to take risks. Her adorable subjects have been immersed in pearls, surrounded by baby dolls, engulfed in large oysters of the sea and sometimes enclosed in fruits and vegetables. The magical butterflies, flowers, angels and everyone's favorite pixies and fairies have always left a deep dramatic imprint on the brain-so memorable that the images become inescapable to the mind influencing our thoughts. Geddes also incorporates the babies into settings of gardens, over-sized teapots, pumpkins and at times into the hands of their parents. The children are photographed in true emotions: sometimes inquisitive, surprised, reflective and at the best in a simple state of euphoria -excited by their enchanted storybook settings.

In her previous book, "Down In The Garden" Geddes wrote, "flowers and babies are two of Mother Nature's most exquisite and perfect creations." Geddes shared that motherhood is perhaps the greatest profession a woman can be blessed with next to being a wife. Her success is a union between her business partner and supportive husband, Kel Geddes whom she credits with encouraging her to maximize her full potential and release the fear of self-doubt in her work. Once a bit of a skeptic, Geddes revealed that, "life invariably does not unfold the way we would expect...(but).. I consider my life to have been very fortunate." Geddes intimates that falling in love changed her life and mentality for the better and reaffirmed the notion that love heals everything.

Early in her career, Geddes was inspired by the story of one of her subjects and therefore made a commitment to use her photography as a tool against the abuse of children. Geddes and her husband established the Geddes Philanthropic Trust, which is dedicated to their passion of providing resources to prevent child abuse. Anne Geddes' photographs of children is meant to give the petite infants an importance in value that streamlines deeply into our consciousness to the point where we accept the natural understanding that it is not just necessary but rather mandatory that we "protect, nurture and love" children because they are too young to have a voice and too little to defend themselves. This is also the overall goal of each of us who are fascinated with Geddes' work and continue to share and attract more fans to her art. Our desire to help everyone understand the importance of Geddes' message is displayed by our exchange of her greeting cards, prints, comments, and gifts. A portion of Geddes' sales and income has always been reserved for her foundation. The Geddes Philanthropic Trust Fund has donated over four million dollars to child abuse prevention programs that often do not have the necessary resources to advance to the best of their ability because of a lack of finances, especialley in legal fees and the required counseling steps of recovery. Geddes received a humanitarian award recently for her dedication and enormous contributions against child abuse. Organizations in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States are encouraged by Anne and Kel to contact the Geddes Philanthropic Trust in a request of funds to further their own efforts to prevent child abuse. Thank you to Anne Geddes and all the artists who use their gifts for change. Continue to propel higher. You are all appreciated.