Anne Geddes – “12 Days of Christmas”
In this my second contributing piece to Shutterbug News, let’s travel back to 1994, when I shot my popular series “The 12 Days of Christmas”. 
Following the initial success of my early greeting cards it was suggested that I should think about creating my own version of the popular traditional song “The Twelve Days of Christmas”. Although I’m Australian, we lived in New Zealand for 18 years (following my husband’s 30-year television career) and one concern I had about this idea was that the song was possibly more popular in New Zealand, Australia and the UK as opposed to the United States. As is often the case with me, once I start with a simple idea it can invariably become something else completely, and this series of images is a great example. As I was shooting the images over a 6-month period that year, we couldn’t get the song out of our heads. Our 2 daughters eventually banned it from our home! Everyone was literally in a Christmas zone for that whole time; we didn’t have much choice.
“12 Days” required a great deal of creative planning and very comprehensive prop making as you could probably imagine. And remember this was pre-digital days and very early photoshop years as well. Here, I would like to give you a sense of what was involved over that period, and the spirit and gentle humor required when working with babies in these sorts of situations. The images themselves come from my sense of fun and my feeling that not all images of babies need to be serious. This series is for those who feel the same way.
Before I started shooting, I was overseas for a short time to oversee some book printing. This was in the days long before email and even private fax machines in hotel rooms (with cell phones still way in the distant future). One morning this report, which we jokingly named “The Blue Fax” (pictured) was a daily report on prop prep back at the studio and delivered to my hotel room. I remember thinking that I hoped nobody downstairs at hotel reception had read it, otherwise they would have thought me quite strange. To save confusion “Rack” was our nickname for my assistant at the time (Rachel).
To explain the contents of said fax … the mentioned phone is featured in “4 Calling Birds”, the duck feathers were used to make the beautiful swan who featured in “7 Swans a-Swimming” and the muslin, gold paint and hair spray were used to make the “5 Gold Rings”. We didn’t eventually use the turbans and in fact I can’t even recall what they were for. The spotty bandanas were for the “3 French Hens”, and the “8 Maids a-Milking” were sitting in the buckets.
The ”Partridge in a Pear Tree”, “2 Turtle Doves”, “3 French Hens” and “4 Calling Birds” are real images completely captured in camera. From there onward, the babies were photographed individually and put together in post-production.
Imagine shooting the “4 Calling Birds” in one take? As you could imagine, it isn’t easy holding the attention of 4 x 6-month-old babies (wearing bird outfits!) and my Studio Manager (Natalie) whose job it was to try to keep their attention, was extended to her full capacity She told me later that she had a small surreal moment in the middle of that shoot, when she was running back and forth between the babies and the camera and thinking “what on earth am I doing?” It was surreal and hilarious, especially with 2 of the babies holding onto the phone (an old fashioned version!).
To me, the funniest and most endearing shoot of the 12 images would have to be the “3 French Hens”. The eggs in this image are actual very large handmade props. The French hen costumes were made with exotic chicken feathers. These feathers were expertly adhered to 3 soft round foam shells which quickly slipped around the babies, fastened with Velcro at the back. You can see the tiny feet of the baby on the right. When shooting with babies of this age, it’s necessary to be very quick, with a minimum of handling and fuss. I knew I would only get one brief chance at sitting them all together and I was right, because they soon became very busy looking at each other and trying to pluck and taste the feathers
Knowing that I’d need lots of feathers over the coming months of also shooting an “Angel” calendar, somebody had the bright idea that we could contact some chicken farmers on the North Island (my studio was in Auckland) and have them send us whatever feathers we needed. They were more than happy to oblige and said that a huge bag of feathers would be dispatched the following day. It happened to be mid-summer at the time and very hot and humid. Unfortunately, the bag was dispatched on a Friday, and due to one mishap after another, it ended up spending the whole weekend sitting outside in the sun at a railway station mid-route to us in Auckland. By the time the bag of feathers arrived, and we opened it to check the contents, the smell was unbelievable. Into the bargain, there was still flesh attached to a lot of the feathers, with a few chicken’s feet thrown in for good measure (Kiwi humor). Apologies if you’re vegan …
I had a new assistant who was starting work that week and her first job was to sit, for hours on end, separating the flesh from the feathers and soaking them all in a bleach solution. I’m sure the smell must have permeated the whole street, and out of desperation we found a commercial laundry that agreed to wash the feathers in one of their huge machines. As a result, the smell became embedded in their machine, which ultimately needed to be replaced. For the record, the new assistant did not resign either during or after her first assignment. That’s commitment for you …
Even though “12 Days” remains one of my all-time favorite series, as of today, nearly 30 years later, I can still faintly smell those chicken feathers whenever somebody mentions sleeping on soft feather pillows!
Be sure to visit Anne Geddes’ Instagram page at: @annegeddesofficial
In 2017, Anne was inducted into the International Photography Hall of Fame.
- Anne Geddes – “12 Days of Christmas” - November 23, 2023
- Anne Geddes – “123 POTS” - August 3, 2023
