Anti-Immunization Risks

"They're really stoic. They never quit on you. These kids are used to medical procedures, waiting for appointments, having a different life from normal kids."
"I really wanted to portray the survivors as beautiful children and young adults, so the first response by the viewer will be, 'What a beautiful child! Then, 'Oh my goodness, what happened?'"
"Think about everything babies represent. They represent new life, a chance at new beginnings. A naked, newborn baby represents total goodness and purity. It's only the way we bring them up that determines whether they become good people or bad people."
"You just put them in a situation  where they're happy and comfortable and then let them go. You've got to start shoots with broad parameters but not blinkers on. Otherwise, you miss the magic."
Anne Geddes, Australian child photographer

Detail of Anne Geddes photo of Megan, 11, of Canada, who was two years old when she was contracted meningococcal disease. She lost both her legs and underwent knee reconstruction. Nine fingers were amputated and she has residual damage to her teeth.

Anne Geddes has made a name for herself in the art of photographing that most wonderful, vulnerable and physically entrancing of all human demographics, babies and young children. She places them in mystical settings where their tiny faces are posed within natural settings juxtaposing the real with the imagined to produce a fusion of humanity within nature in a manner that questions nature's intentions and our own ability to fantasize our place in nature.

Children's images, whose whimsical faces, smiling, pensive, shy and joyous peek out at the viewer from behind a floral halo, in a garden setting. Nymphs, nyads, imps and gnomes all rush to mind in a world that existed in the minds of our historical/cultural predecessors trying to understand the natural world around us and how that natural world impacts on the world that human beings have fashioned out of their manipulation of nature.

Anne Geddes has produced sumptuous large-format publications featuring her photographs in celebration of healthy and happy children of all ages, the cherubs that melt the hearts of parents and non-parents alike. In her coffee table-format books and calendars the children pose in impressively flamboyant, imaginative costumes straight out of Wonderland.

She has affiliated herself and her fame and her photographic skills with Global Advocate for the UN Foundation's Shot@Life campaign. And she appeared in Ottawa for the purpose of addressing the Canadian Immunization Conference, to do what she can to inform the greater public that while meningococcal disease is rare in its dreadful appearances, it can be deadly, and it is preventable; a dread disease that can kill within the space of a day.

Detail from Anne Geddes photo of Benjamin, 15, from Canada, who was four months old when he was diagnosed with meningococcal disease. He suffered significant brain damage and lost his legs, right hand and several fingers.

And to aid in that campaign she has collected photographs she has imaginatively and expertly staged to demonstrate how survivors of this dread disease cope with its aftermath, and to draw our attention to the impact the disease has on individuals, families and society at large. She photographed 15 survivors from Spain, Canada, the United Kingdom and other places around the world, in her collection titled Protecting Our Tomorrows: Portraits of Meningococcal Disease.

That collection was assembled into an ebook, and it is downloadable without charge at iBooks or tumblr.com. The young victims of meningococcal disease are posed in stances that illustrate the beauty of the human spirit despite amputated legs, missing digits and scarred bodies. The survivors are so dramatically spirit-lifting in their beauty, they challenge the very meaning of human beauty to encompass an obvious conjoining in the photograph of mind and body

In the book itself appears a list of symptoms of the onset of the disease. Symptoms that have the capacity to trick parents into believing -- and sometimes their doctors as well - that nothing is dreadfully amiss with their children experiencing symptoms that can be misconstrued with those of the common flu. In the photographs, the children posed in emulation of Greek and Roman statuary on classical columns or bases, wrapped in diaphanous fabric appear other-worldly in their beauty.

Prevention has always been the better part of 'cure'. Immunization of children from childhood diseases often thought common, but with debilitating side effects at best, serious threats to health at worst, including death, is vital in protecting the most vulnerable part of any population; children of all ages. An unscientifically troublesome backlash has arisen over the past number of years from people claiming seriously negative impacts from immunization; autism among them, which though proven false still has its champions.

The Canadian Immunization Conference presented a forum for the gathering of specialists to discuss all issues related to public health and immunization; Anne Geddes  appeared as a featured guest.
The CIC2014 is led by the Canadian Public Health Association with support from the Government of Canada and participation of Immunize Canada, the Canadian Association for Immunization Research and Evaluation, and the Canadian Paediatric Society.

• The only national immunization event of its kind in Canada, CIC2014 offers a unique forum for immunization experts and stakeholders to share research, knowledge and best practices, demonstrate their commitment to immunization as a critical public health measure and contribute to the success of immunization programs and practices in Canada.
• Immunization is one of the most cost-effective public health interventions and the safest and most effective means to prevent and control vaccine preventable illness.
• One of the most important things you can do as a parent is to make sure your child is immunized against serious vaccine-preventable diseases. Routine vaccines have saved the lives of more infants and children than any other medical intervention in the past 50 years.
• Canada has a rigorous system in place to ensure vaccines are safe and effective in preventing the disease they target. Once a vaccine is in use, health authorities continue to monitor its safety.