Anne Geddes 12, November 2007

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Anne Geddes est une photographe australienne. née en 1956 à Queensland Australie Elle est connue pour ses photographies de nouveaux-nés.Voici un portrait d’Anne Geddes

Ses livres se sont vendus à près de 15 millions d’exemplaires dans le monde. Elle est particulièrement célèbre en Europe et aux États-Unis. Il y a d’ailleurs une collection en vente présentement au Canada, qui sont des livres remplies de pensées et de photographies, par exemple: Toughts with Love for Mothers. Ses photos se trouvent sur nombre de faire-parts, cartes postales, papiers à lettres, fonds d’écran et couvertures d’album de photos. De plus, elle vend du linge imprimé de ses photographies ainsi que des cintres et des sacs pour transporter les couches!

En janvier 2004 et juin 2005, La Poste française a utilisé ses photographies pour illustrer quatre timbres-poste semi-permanents d’annonce de naissance «C’est une fille» et «C’est un garçon». Elle a travaillé en collaboration avec Céline Dion pour la projet Miracle en 2004. Elle se disait même nerveuse à propos de cet évènement: “Le premier jour, je ne pouvais m’empêcher de penser ‘c’est une adulte’, et prendre des photos d’adulte ou créer des vêtements pour eux n’est pas vraiment conforme à mes habitudes de travail.” Finalement, tout c’est bien déroulé et Céline a dit qu’elle admirait beaucoup le travail de cette femme! La pochette du dernier disque de Céline Miracle est représentatif du travail de la photographe célèbre!

( Source: Wikipedia)

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Anne Geddes, MNZM, (born September 1956) is an Australian-born photographer, clothing designer and businesswoman who now lives and works in New Zealand. She is well-known for her stylised depictions of babies and motherhood.

In most of her work, babies and/or young children are dressed as fictitious characters such as fairies and fairytale creatures, flowers, or animals like bunnies.

Her work is extremely idealized; babies in her photographs are almost always sleeping or staring blankly into space, as if still in the womb. She has been very successful; her books have been published in at least fifty countries. According to Amazon.com she has sold more than 11 million books and 15 million calendars.

In 1997 Geddes was awarded a Lifetime Membership in the Professional Photographers of America and an Honorary Fellowship with the New Zealand Institute of Professional Photographers (NZIPP). Geddes was also appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2004.[1]

In 2004, Geddes collaborated with musical superstar Céline Dion. The project, called Miracle: A Celebration of New Life, is a combination of music and photos revolving around the themes of new life and babies.

In 2004 and June 2005, the French postal service, La Poste, used four of her photographs for postage stamps. They illustrated the series “C’est une fille – C’est un garçon” (“It’s a girl — It’s a boy”). In 2007, her images were introduced for use on the American postage product known as PhotoStamps.

( Source: Wikipedia)

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Official Website

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Finland sees a baby boom 12, November 2007

Last year, over a thousand more babies were born in Finland than during the previous year. However, the average age for first-time mothers is on the rise.During the mid-1990s, the number of births in Finland began to fall as the economy picked up after the recession. Usually, fewer children are born when the economic situation is goof. Recently, however, the trend has turned around. Last year, over 59000 babies were born in Finland, a figure that is over 1000 more than 2005.

The average age for a woman giving birth is 30. First-time mothers, however, are older than before. In recent years, the average age of first-time mothers has risen to 28.

Some commend Finnish day-care as well as parental allowances and leave, and believe the system encourages people to raise families.

Too little, too late

Northern and central Ostrobothnia had the highest birth rates, whereas East Savo, Kymenlaakso and Lapland had the lowest.

Mika Gissler, a researcher at the National Research and Development Centre for Welfare and Health, said that a lack of educational opportunities and jobs affect the birth rate in sparsely populated areas. According to Gissler, educated women from rural areas often move to larger cities to find work, and do not return to their hometowns. Meanwhile, Helsinki poses its own set of challenges for young families. In the capital city region a first child is born, however siblings do not follow.

In order for the population to not shrink in the future, each woman needs to, on average, have more than two children, researchers say. In spite of the increased number of births last year, women are still, on average, giving birth to fewer than two.

(Source : Yle)

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