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March 29, 2005
Anne Geddes: Hugged By An Angel
When I'm blue, there's one very easy way to get me out of my cranky pants and back into my overalls of joy. And that is to look at some of the truly unforgettable photographs snapped by that golden genius Anne Geddes.
It's a baby! In a flowerpot! Dressed as a bee! It just doesn't get much better than that. Anne Geddes doesn't just see the world the way it is -- she sees metaphors that add new layers of meaning and depth to everyday life. When I see this, I just think about what a wonderful allegory for childbirth this is. My womb is a flowerpot. You can plant a seed in it, and the seed will be safe and watered and tended to constantly, and the environs are fertile and lush. And when it's time, you can pluck the baby out of the womb-pot, and sometimes, it's true, the baby has a stinger.
I wish I could see through Anne's eyes. I wish I saw little babies in everything, and could capture that through photography in ways that turn the mundane into the magical. But I can't -- no matter how hard I look, I can't see a baby in my boyfriend's X-box, or in my new red sheets. But thanks to Anne Geddes, when I'm frustrated and start to lose faith in fetal ubiquity, I can turn to her.
Help yourself to some of this glory.
Posted by Heather at 04:13 PM in Turn That Frown Upside Down | Permalink
Comments
So right. And there is nothing creepy about her work. AT ALL.
Posted by: greeblygreebly | Apr 1, 2005 12:10:26 AM
Truly, Anne Geddes is the patch that darns my own overalls of joy.
Posted by: Lexa | Apr 1, 2005 1:58:07 AM
I think "fetal ubiquity" just might be my new favorite phrase.
Posted by: CL | Apr 1, 2005 6:20:42 AM
Anne Geddes FREAKS!ME!OUT! "No I don't care for children."
Posted by: AdamP | Apr 1, 2005 6:34:01 AM
You know, I think you're right. I never used to *get* the real meaning behind Anne's work. I always thought it was trite, simpering, and a little creepy. But you've shown me that underneathe that facade of creep, there's a much deeper, almost *pathological* joy--the joy of motherhood. It makes me want to have a baby of my own. Right. Now.
Posted by: cinaea | Apr 1, 2005 6:53:21 AM
Oh, my eyes, my EYES!
This is fabulous, ladies. You are indeed hilarious bitches.
Posted by: Claudia | Apr 1, 2005 7:05:10 AM
Bravo! Great makeover-for-a-day.
Now get back to the snarking!
Posted by: Jennaratrix | Apr 1, 2005 7:27:38 AM
I feel so much better now... I used to think she drugged the babies (whiskey nipple anyone?) to get them to hold still long enough to be dressed as a flower or insect but now I see that her gift is so powerful and her artistic vision so RIGHT that even the babies sense it and fall to sleep comforted and soothed but the beauty and truth of her images.
Posted by: Laurel | Apr 1, 2005 7:57:54 AM
I used to work with a woman who wallpapered her cubicle with Anne Geddes pictures. And at the end of the year, when her Anne G. calendar expired, she'd cut out those, too, and tack them up. I used to feel like I was entering the den of some kind of weird baby cult, but now I realize that I just didn't understand the genius of Anne G. Now I'm going off to sob softly about all of the opportunities I had to appreciate her work that I not only took for granted, but I completely ignored.
Sniff...I need a hug!
Posted by: Captain Fantastic | Apr 1, 2005 8:17:10 AM
fetal ubiquity -- truly amazing.
my sister once gave me an AG poster, and for lack of understanding of its brilliance and message for my life, i let it gather dust under my bed. now i will get it out and hang it proudly, right next to my ashlee simpson poster (because ashlee simpson is undeniably another beacon of all that is good in the world).
Posted by: JLE | Apr 1, 2005 8:25:51 AM
GET OUT OF MY BRAIN!! For real, this freaked me out. I send Anne Geddes cards to my friends all the time because I HATE her. Seriously, why are the babies dressed up as BEES? They are babies, is that not cute enough for you, Anne? God, she ruins babies. Ruins them. "I know, let's take a picture of them crawling on tires,poking their adorable little heads out of the center...dressed as broccoli!"
This made my entire life.
Posted by: Claire | Apr 1, 2005 8:51:51 AM
God Anne Geddes makes me want to yank out my ovaries. please please don't let me give birth to baby bees or tiny tiny babies that curl up in the palm of your hand.
I think Anne has a cute baby sweatshop...
"Put on the Lion outfit now!!!"
"Get in that Flowerpot, tiny, you're not getting any smaller!!"
Posted by: chunkstyyle | Apr 1, 2005 9:06:19 AM
"Fetal ubiquity." Awesome.
Posted by: Jennifer | Apr 1, 2005 9:33:34 AM
You are both the most clever chicks EVER.
Only after reading this and really, really, really getting it, do I understand Anne's work and why that "better than chocolate before your period" singer of all singers Celine Dion would match up talents with the likes of Anne. Miracles abound!
This is best April 1st I've ever had.
Kel
Posted by: Kel | Apr 1, 2005 9:45:58 AM
While I can appreciate the work of the artist, I would find it more enriching if she made cute images out of things babies do that are not already cute. A baby in a costume smiling is cute, a crying baby screaming while it vomits and poos all over you is not. Why is this untapped market unaddressed by the artist. What? It's too hard to think of a way to make a baby chugging laxatives and binging and purging cute? it could be a Model In Training playset! Am I the only one to see this potential?
Posted by: Skankorama | Apr 1, 2005 9:55:15 AM
Oh you just forgot her incredible work and masterpieces made with Celine Dion! Who doesn't like to see such a beautiful being with babies in farytale decors?
Celine Dion likes so much her son that she allows him to be in an advertising for an enchanting mini-van with her. Ahhh family love, it's sooo cute !
Posted by: sardinet | Apr 1, 2005 10:07:44 AM
How I love the beauty of the Anne Geddes photo gallery. Babies in flower pots, babies dressed as insects, babies dressed as birds, babies dressed as the cutest, ing that I was a 17 year old girl giving birth in the gym bathroom at my senior prom,just so that I would be able to rush the baby over to Anne Geddes to photgraph my newborn as a bear cub,or a bird in a cage,or a puppy in the kennel, so that no one,a doctor or nurse or parent or grandparent would be able to even suggest that tricking up the recently arrived in costumes and planters isn't maybe the best idea. This is so much better than the "give me the tit and nobody gets hurt" or "My Mommy drinks because I cry" t-shirts.
Posted by: blackirish | Apr 1, 2005 11:37:41 AM
Re; turning that frown uspide down!
Yes! Yes! It does take 46 muscles to frown at Anne Geddes! But who would want to??
Like, like, like I mean all babies are sooo adorable!
So for today, I am relaxing my frowny McClowney muscles! All 46! And just smiling and shedding a tear of joy for the goodness she brings!
And while it only takes 8 muscles to raise a middle finger to the world.. Today I will use 16 muscles and make a cheery peace sign instead!
Ann Geddes you are an Angel dropped from Heaven!!!!!!
Posted by: t-heartGeddes_sam | Apr 1, 2005 11:58:20 AM
"My womb is a flowerpot."
Mine too!
Fug Girls, you rock my world. And also the library where I checked the site, as my snorts of laughter attested to all around me.
Posted by: Saz | Apr 1, 2005 12:15:06 PM
Really now I have had enough. This is so typical of the Radical leftist Left. Yes. MAking fun of succesful black celebrities is one thing but making fun of heterosexual white children is quite another. I mean.These are our fucher leaders. These childrens could be our fucher presidents and secreataieres etc. Presidents if they're male white men of course. If there were girl babies in there, our focus is on nutrtuing and carefully cultivating their pretty all-pale Caucasian ovaries, other race ovaries are disposable, i like chewing fresh african ovaries as an aphrodisiace before my make-out sessions with Satan ) So Why not just go back to mokking Orientals and Blacks, oh sorry Bazillacks? (as you just saw, I too am fiersomely sarcastic. Are you fiering now??)
Leave the white childrens alone.
Posted by: Ann Coulter | Apr 1, 2005 12:27:09 PM
My good lord, it took me a moment to remember it's April Fools day.
Sometimes, *sometimes*, the baby does have a stinger. Preach it.
Posted by: chinchilla | Apr 1, 2005 4:55:34 PM
Oh my...
I laughed, I cried (I may have even peed myself a tiny bit).
You ladies totally ROCK!
Posted by: Jane | Apr 1, 2005 6:51:16 PM
The fact that they're dressed up as bees means that they're boys. Bees pollinate.
Posted by: Kris | Apr 1, 2005 7:18:43 PM
I think Anne Geddes needs to take the theme a little further--fetuses dressed in cute little daisy costumes, for example, or blastocysts in tutus. Because why limit the JOY and CUTENESS to babies? Anne, let's tap the smile-potential of the embryo--and bring happiness to the inner embryo in every one of us.
And Ann Coulter? I hate to break this to you, but you are a man in drag. Yes, yes you are. Look at your hands--those are man-hands. Now look at your Adam's apple. QED.
Posted by: JupiterPluvius | Apr 1, 2005 7:36:12 PM
Holy shit. This is the best day of my life. I thought I was the only one who loathes, hates, is offended by the trivial shit that Anne Geddes pumps out and calls photography.
Every time I see her pictures I wanna puke. Can you imagine anyone more detached and remote than Anne Geddes - can you imagine being her kid? You're not a child, your'e the center of a sunflower, an easter egg, a god damn bumble bee...But to know I am not alone in hating her work - well, it just gives me hope again.
Posted by: Ricky | Apr 1, 2005 7:54:34 PM
I can't wait till the sun comes up on April 2nd, so that Anne Geddes will go back to sucking.
Posted by: Dave | Apr 1, 2005 11:43:29 PM
JupiterPluvius: maybe not a man but female/male transexual. Meaning she has terminal PMS and the balls to make the rest of us suffer with her. Or perhaps she's pissed because her penis is just so darned small. That seems to be Tucker Carlson's problem.
Posted by: carpedog | Apr 2, 2005 7:33:24 AM
that may be the best explanation of Anne Geddes i've ever encountered. and God knows my friends and i have tried a few of our own.
Posted by: J Ho | Apr 2, 2005 2:07:07 PM
Okay -- you've had your fun, ladies...BRING BACK THE SNARKING!!!!
This is the longest April Fool's shenanigan EVER. I can't take it anymore!!! PLEASE COME BACK -- AND DON'T LEAVE US FOR THIS LONG EVER AGAIN!!!
We need you!
Posted by: Alicia | Apr 3, 2005 6:20:18 AM
OMFG. That is the funniest thing I've ever read in my effing life.
I loathe Anne Geddes and her freaky pictures with the white hot intensity of 1,000 suns. I'd rather see my kids' mug shots than see them in one of her ridiculous get-ups.
Posted by: kimmah | Apr 3, 2005 7:10:16 AM
I actually think this is more amusing than GFY.
The person above who told you to "get back to snarking" simply does not appreciate this level of snark. This is to snark as a girl named Becky who wears pink is to Goth culture. It's sublime!
Posted by: isadora | Apr 4, 2005 9:56:08 AM
Alright -- this is the first time I've ever responded to anything on "the internets" -- but I must say I LOVE YOU GUYS!!! *sniff*
I'm addicted to this site and I feel, finally, that I AM NOT ALONE in my belief that I -- we -- Americans -- are the collective victims of FUG ABUSE.
Do you ever watch old movies (1920's - 1960's ) and think -- God, everything and everybody just looked so much BETTER? WHAT HAPPENED?
This, the Anne Geddes dis -- is bringing tears to my eyes, which have been assaulted all too often by that woman's atrocious oevre -- especially that book of hers with the cover of the skinny woman with the baby tucked up inside her dress -- ARRGH!!!! WHAT THE #%$@???
Anyway, had to give you props. Keep up the fug.
Posted by: mona dahl | Apr 4, 2005 12:06:01 PM
Yeah, more members for the league of Anne Geddes haters. I used to think those old fashioned ceramic dolls were creepy, but they can't hold a candle to Anne Geddes. Stephen King, step aside. Once she's worn out lady bugs and bees, what's next? We'll dress these three little babies as African Wild Dogs, and picture them devouring a rancid antelope!
Posted by: Nicholas | Jun 30, 2005 11:18:44 AM
Yeah, more members for the league of Anne Geddes haters. I used to think those old fashioned ceramic dolls were creepy, but they can't hold a candle to Anne Geddes. Stephen King, step aside. Once she's worn out lady bugs and bees, what's next? We'll dress these three little babies as African Wild Dogs, and picture them devouring a rancid antelope!
Posted by: Nicholas | Jun 30, 2005 11:23:19 AM