THE BIRTH OF AN IDEA

The difficulties Anna and Sean experienced with the birth of their daughter Frankie led Anna to volunteer her photography services to new parents in the neonatal unit of Melbourne Royal Women’s Hospital.

“It took us six years to become pregnant, and Frankie’s gestation and birth were not easy. I spent five weeks in Melbourne’s Royal Women’s Hospital before the birth. Even then, Frankie was five weeks premature.

“We spent two weeks in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) after she was born, and our photos from that time mean the world to us. I realized that every family in NICU would want to have such images of their newborns.

“When Frankie was two, I volunteered for three years at the hospital photographing premmie babies — mostly twins — and their parents in the NICU ward. Every two weeks, I would spend a day cruising around with my camera offering free photo sessions, simply because I could. That was a special gig, to be honest.”

(More of the photographs and blog notes are posted at pixierouge.com)

“After three years, I stopped taking the hospital shots, and while my passion was still photographing newborns and documenting families in their homes, I carried on photographing interior design, hundreds and hundreds of weddings, as well as artists’ and business people’s profiles.

“That all changed, of course, when Covid-19 hit. I had to cancel all my wedding photography dates for the following year, and Sean lost his job. That’s when we decided to come home to Ōamaru.”